Photo by Don Hankins licensed under CC 2.0

Paul Longwell a Washington State Library IT specialist by day is a Beekeeper by night. Paul recently told us about his participation in the Washington State Beekeeping Association apprentice beekeeper program.   In order to reach the highest level of Master Beekeeper it takes six years of study. To prepare for the exams you need several hard to find references from both State and Federal documents. But have no fear, Paul works in a library! On searching our catalog he discovered that we had every single one of them. The Washington Beekeeping Association now uses these resources for their Journeyman training classes.

To name just a few:

Evaluating honey bee colonies for pollination a guide for commercial growers and beekeepers

Bee pollination of tree fruits

Beekeeping in the United States

So if honey or bees are your passion, remember the Washington State Library is a sweet spot to study and learn more about your hobby.

SCCC Greenhouse

Sustainability has become a major buzz word here at Stafford Creek Corrections Center.  By partnering with Evergreen Community College a lot of programs have been started at Stafford Creek that have been a benefit to the inmates as well as to the environment.  Prairie grass from Fort Lewis is being reseeded in greenhouses, honey is being harvested from bees, fresh fruit and vegetables are hitting the dining hall tables, and garbage is being sorted.  However, that is not all that has been happening at Stafford Creek. 

The programs were created to offer sustainability in the prison environment (which can be a very expensive operation) but also to teach the inmates about green jobs and give them a sense of their environment for when they leave the prison.  To that end, lectures about the environment, green jobs, and recycling have been attended by many of the inmates, even those not involved in the actual programs.  Such success has led to the donations of books to the library to give the inmates further information about these subjects.  These books will be added to the collection and made available to all the inmates in the instituion.  After this is done, I will be looking at the long list of suggestions by the inmates and adding to this topic.  Looking at the list I just received today I have found a few more that they would like to see on the shelves. 

Green is becoming a very powerful color and the inmates are joining the revolution.