-What's a pancake without maple syrup,
and why is Vermont the main supplier of this sweet staple?
Now, some Northwest folks want in.
More sweetness, as we discuss honey
and the industrious little creatures
that produce it.
They tower over us,
providing clear air, water, and shade.
See what's being done to protect our valuable tree canopy.
These stories and more, next on "CityStream".
♪♪
Hello, I'm Connie Thompson.
Welcome to "CityStream" from Seattle Center,
home of Bumbershoot.
Seattle's iconic music and arts festival
returns this Labor Day weekend
after a three year hiatus.
Bumbershoot will celebrate its 50th anniversary
with a few changes.
First, the festival will pare down to just two days.
Also reduced -- the price of admission.
Headliners include Sleater-Kinney, The Revivalists,
Brittany Howard, and Jawbreaker.
More on Bumbershoot just ahead.
From sizzling sounds to a story of sweet aspirations.
Most of us likely have a bottle of maple syrup in our kitchens,
and despite being surrounded by maple trees
here in the Northwest,
we've never been a player in the billion-dollar syrup industry.
Well, a group of people is trying to change that.
Producer David Albright explains.
-People have so many questions when you tell them
that you make Bigleaf Maple Syrup.
It's really neat to explain to them
how simple the process really can can be
and how you can punch a hole in a couple trees
and make yourself some glorious syrup.
-The United States produces
5 million gallons of maple syrup a year,
with almost all of it coming from the Northeast.
But today, a budding movement is forming to make syrup
using an underappreciated resource we have in abundance
here in the Northwest --
the native bigleaf maple tree.
-It was regarded as kind of a weed.
Foresters tried to eradicate it
so that they could get more Douglas fir and hemlock
and more valuable species,
but it's stubborn and it persists.
-When it comes to syrup production,
not all maples are created equal.
There's a reason why the East Coast sugar maple
has become the industry's workhorse.
-The big difference is that sugar maples
have about a 2% to 2.5% sugar content in the sap,
and bigleaf maple is about half of that.
So, we have to process twice as much sap to get syrup.
-Weather patterns also play a role.
Sap flows from maple trees in the warming period
after a hard freeze,
and in the northwest,
those freezes are more unpredictable
than they are out east.
But Kent Wheiler thinks these issues can be overcome,
and he's been leading a study
through the University of Washington
to gather data on sap flows.
-We're hoping that with additional income
that can come from maple production,
that land owners will have an economic incentive
to keep those forests as forests
and not convert to other uses.
-Case in point -- Andrew Sharman's family
recently purchased a piece of forested property
in Kitsap County,
and he's exploring the idea of tapping his trees.
-So, you can kind of see here where it's opening up.
There's tons of, you know, bigleaf maples, so...
-Jeff Rupert has offered to take a look at the property
to assess its syrup-making potential.
-Walking through his property -- it's perfect.
Gentler slope would be nicer,
but, you know, beggars can't be choosers
in western Washington.
It's gullies.
Oh, this is where it gets fun, then.
-Yeah. It gets a little steeper. -[ Chuckles ]
-I think we could almost start with
just tapping one side of the hill
and see how it goes, and maybe, if it's going well,
we could plan a way to connect to the other side as well.
-For sure. -Yeah.
-After the sap is collected,
processing it into syrup is the next piece of the puzzle.
Andrew could either buy his own equipment
or he could take it to Jeff,
who's built a sugar shack on his property,
complete with reverse osmosis system and an evaporator.
Both are machines used to remove water content from the sap,
leaving just the concentrated sugar and flavor.
-I bought this equipment with the idea of participating
in a co-op or having local landowners
come to me to be able to help them out.
So, what we have is the two divided pans.
There's basically baffles in between sections,
and so this will be your raw sap over here.
And as it heats up,
it actually moves closer to the finishing pan.
-Today, hobbyists like Jeff are the majority
of bigleaf maple syrup producers in the state.
There's just one company making and selling bigleaf maple syrup
on a commercial scale --
Neil's Bigleaf in Whatcom County,
with a couple of others working to get licensed.
The hobbyists of today,
with the potential to become the industry of tomorrow.
-We'd like to see it develop somewhat like the wine industry,
so that each valley and each county
has their own special blends and flavors.
We've already seen that some syrups from Quilcene,
for example,
taste different from ones from Sultan,
and we think that's kind of exciting and unique.
-Bigleaf maple syrup is a bit richer.
A lot of people will taste hints of, like, a toffee or a caramel.
-Chefs and bartenders really like it
because it's good for mixing drinks and putting on salmon.
-I really enjoy it over, like, yogurt or ice cream.
I normally tell people that it's not a pancake syrup,
but then again, I have friends and family
that will float their pancakes in it.
-Many think bigleaf maple syrup
could represent a new Northwest staple,
one that could help us celebrate and preserve
what makes our region unique.
Imagine small-scale producers
selling bottles at Pike Place Market,
and farm-to-table restaurants
incorporating their favorite varieties into seasonal menus.
-I could see it being a tourist attraction, really.
People flock to sugar shacks on the East Coast
to be able to see the operation
and see the billowing steam and smell,
and I could totally see that happening in key locations
in western Washington,
and it's not too far off.
My crystal ball says three to five years. Yeah.
-Kent Wheiler hopes more producers will be licensed
to sell commercially as early as next winter,
and if you have a grove of bigleaf maple trees
on your property,
you might want to give it a try
and get in on the ground floor of this growing movement.
Aside from syrup, trees also give us clean air and water
and plenty of shade.
So, how are we protecting our vital tree canopy?
The tales as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
-Mature, decades-old trees play an important role
in human health,
from cleaner air and water
to life-saving shade as temperatures rise,
and that's true even within the city limits
of a major metro area.
Producers Michael Crowe and Pete Cassam
look at the work underway
to protect and grow Seattle's urban tree canopy.
-Surrounded by the sounds of nature,
the ambient stillness...
[ Birds chirping ]
[ Water lapping ]
...whispering creeks...
One might assume we're deep in the mountains,
miles from anything,
not right in the heart of Seattle.
-We're in the Longfellow Creek watershed.
So, the volunteers today are removing some invasive plants,
mainly blackberry and ivy,
that have been introduced and growing
in this site for quite some time.
[ Grunts ]
-Seattle is renowned for its greenery,
the verdant landscapes and mild climate of the Northwest,
but to reap the benefits of the natural world
in an urban environment,
it must be protected.
-I think that there's been an increasing awareness
of how many things urban natural areas
still do for our ecosystem.
They're stressed by climate change
and human uses around them,
they introduce plants
and have stressed the plants that are there.
-The Delridge Neighborhood Development Association
does forest restoration like this
in a dozen natural areas,
volunteer days,
protecting and improving the wild spaces of this city,
one aspect in particular.
-I learned today about the tree canopy
and just understanding that
how we are letting the native tree grow
to create that canopy -- I mean, that feels --
the work that we are doing will contribute to that --
feels really good.
-That tree canopy has been a growing concern
for urban foresters in recent years.
Tree cover in the city provides a myriad of benefits --
climate change resilience, cleaner air, cleaner water,
heat protection, lower asthma rates.
The list goes on,
and the cover is shrinking.
The city of Seattle conducted a study
comparing aerial scans from 2016 to 2021
and found we lost 255 acres of tree cover during that time,
a decline of 1.7%,
approximately the surface area of Green Lake.
-While it's disappointing that we're backsliding,
it's really good information
because the city's been investing a lot
in our urban forestry, care, management, regulation,
you know, policies around management of our urban forests,
and we know now that that's not enough.
It kept us from backsliding even further,
and, you know, there are areas that we did grow canopy
and canopy is getting more plentiful and healthy.
That loss is not happening equitably across the city.
-Patti Bakker is the urban forestry policy adviser
for the city's Office of Sustainability and Environment.
She says, armed with this data,
they are working towards the goal of 30% canopy
across the city set back in 2007.
It's currently 28.1%, and they want to make sure
that growth is equitably distributed,
as neighborhoods with fewer trees like Rainier Beach
have suffered disparate impacts of extreme heat in recent years.
-So, there's, you know, decades of various processes,
including redlining,
lack of investment in these neighborhoods.
What canopy they had has not been protected
and maintained and retained.
There hasn't been investment to restore that
and bring canopy back up in those neighborhoods.
-Part of the way they plan to do that
is collaborating on tree equity with the state,
which was announced in April.
Another is a new tree ordinance,
which is not without controversy.
It lowers the threshold of what makes a tree exceptional,
from 30 to 24 inches in diameter,
protecting an additional 60,000 trees
from being cut down without mitigation by city estimates,
with other rules for smaller trees.
But opponents have claimed it's at odds
with the goal of creating housing,
believing that it could raise construction costs,
though the Master Builders Association
supported it in the end.
Still, other critics
believe it won't really protect trees from developers.
-The ordinance will protect some trees on private property.
However, it really opens up the gates
to more cutting of significant and exceptional trees
that we really need during this time of climate crisis.
I think it's going to be very detrimental to public health.
I also think that while we're protecting some trees
on private property,
it can sort of negatively impact homeowners
that are already struggling to stay within the city.
-In order to achieve our climate justice goals,
we need both housing and trees.
We can achieve both.
It's a false narrative to say, "It's either housing or trees."
We can achieve both through good policy, good practices,
and this ordinance gets at that,
in finding that balance and allowing flexibilities
for developers to develop the new housing that is needed
while protecting,
retaining, or mitigating for and replanting trees elsewhere
as they develop the housing budget.
-But in the meantime, crews take the active task
of protecting the trees we already have,
like this SDOT team
prepping for the Mariners to host the All-Star Game...
-So, right now, he's just checking
what 14 feet over the road looks like.
That's our clearance that we have to hit.
[ Chainsaw buzzing ]
-...and helping those impacted by damage and disease,
like this parks crew.
-So, we tend to see the sickest patients.
We see prevalence of disease throughout the canopies.
[ Branches cracking ]
Dutch elm disease is pervasive across the country,
and that's always taken a few each year.
And then we're having bronze birch borer.
-The ongoing dance to coexist with nature
in an urban environment.
-If we don't do the clearances
that are required on these trees,
trucks that end up hitting these branches
branches that get torn down and causing a lot of damage
to the tree that could have been mitigated.
-One thing is clear --
established, healthy trees
change a space for the better,
both aesthetically and through the many human health benefits,
especially as we look to the future
and the growing impacts of a changing climate.
-So, you can see behind me here, we have some fairly large,
well-established conifers.
There are a lot of natural areas around Seattle
that don't have large established conifers.
They lack a lot of the habitat and ecological values
that large coniferous forests can provide.
Both of these sites are getting conifers planted.
Depending on climate and depending on the health
and progress of the restoration at this site,
we hope that they'll continue to grow
and be able to be major parts of the canopy in decades to come.
-You can learn much more about the Urban Forestry Commission,
including details of the new tree ordinance,
by going to this website --
Seattle.gov/ UrbanForestryCommission.
One word.
Up next, we'll talk Bumbershoot.
And later, we love their honey,
but bees also make many of our favorite fruits
and vegetables possible.
How to help bees thrive, as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
-Welcome back to "CityStream", from Seattle Center.
You know, we are just days away from a Labor Day tradition
we've missed the last few years --
Bumbershoot.
Joining me now is Marc Jones.
He is the director of marketing for Seattle Center.
Marc, welcome. Thanks for being here.
-Thank you for having us. -Alright.
We're just days away from the big event.
How are preparations for Bumbershoot coming?
-Well, we are definitely busy.
We're super excited about the 50th anniversary of Bumbershoot
returning after four years.
You know, post-COVID,
there's a lot of activity coming back to Seattle Center
and we're just thrilled to have all the planning underway --
stages loading in, crews, getting on site
to set up the five stages
with over 50-plus bands coming this year.
So, excited to welcome back the community
for this annual tradition.
-I know a lot of people are excited as well.
Speaking of performers, tell us more about some of them
and where they will be performing.
-Yeah, so, as I mentioned,
there's five different stages throughout campus.
So, the Mural Amphitheater is going to be the highlight,
Fisher Stage, the fountain stage.
There's a couple new stages this year,
one up in KEXP's courtyard,
which is exciting to welcome people to.
And there's just a huge amount of artists. 50 artists.
You know, my favorite is actually
Fatboy Slim that's coming back,
but we've got The Revivalists, Phantogram.
You and I were talking about Brittany Howard earlier,
who will be on the Fisher Stage.
So, just a really diverse mix of artists
that we're excited to perform here
at Seattle Center to celebrate the 50th.
-Now, a couple of important changes to talk about this year.
Bumbershoot will be not three days, but only two.
Tell us more about that.
-Yeah, so, historically,
the festival has been two to four days.
It's kind of changed over the 50 years.
You know, we wanted to come back strong
with a really robust lineup,
and, you know, two days was better to start with,
to build back, especially after the pandemic,
but we're excited to welcome, you know, all those guests,
and our goal in the future is to not just have
Bumbershoot be two days or three or four,
it's to have year-round activities throughout the city
that are branded under the Bumbershoot brand.
So, featuring arts culture, music, comedy, et cetera.
So, that's the end goal here for the festival.
-That will be real exciting looking forward.
Tell us more about the other change, which is prices.
It's going to be not as expensive as before?
-Yeah, that was a big important goal
for us and our new partners, New Rising Sun,
to make sure we had an affordable festival.
You know, prices have gone up dramatically to see artists.
I mean, we're talking 150, $200 for other festivals.
We launched with a $50 ticket or a two-day $85 ticket,
which, thanks to our partners at Amazon,
we were able to keep those prices down.
So, that unique partnership and Amazon's gift
to really help us relaunch the festival has been huge.
So, you know, our goal also is to work with many nonprofits
throughout the community.
New Rising Sun and Third Stone,
the nonprofit that's helping produce it
is providing 5,000 free tickets that will be distributed
throughout those different nonprofits.
So, really, just trying to create access
and reduce barriers
so people can return to the festival
and enjoy it.
-Awesome. Now, for that price of admission,
I can go to any of the performers I want to see?
-Yeah, so the campus will be --
There'll be multiple gates and access.
There'll be the multiple stages. All of them will be accessible.
The lineup is really rich.
If you go to bumbershoot.com, you can check it out.
I always try to plan ahead and mark off who I'm going to see,
so I've already marked up my list for the weekend,
but you'll be able to move kind of between the acts,
and it's kind of scheduled
so you kind of experience the grounds.
And not only will there be music,
there'll be art displays,
there'll be a fashion district,
there'll be some really new, unique surprises
that I don't want to spoil for people
that are going to come down,
but it's definitely something not to miss.
-What advice do you have for people
who've never been to Bumbershoot before?
-Yeah, I think, you know, make sure you go online
to bumbershoot.com and plan ahead,
figure out what you're allowed to bring into the festival.
You know, come early. There's a lot of parking.
There's transit access throughout Seattle Center.
It's really easy to get down here.
And then, you know, get here early
so you don't miss the expansive lineup,
which really, is from, you know, 12:30 'til 11:30 PM.
-And hopefully, Bumbershoot is back for good.
-That's the goal.
So, this year, you know, we're excited.
We've got basically a 10-year agreement
with our new producing partners,
and our goal, as I mentioned earlier,
is to grow it not from just two to maybe three days
in the future of the festival at Seattle Center,
but the nucleus of Bumbershoot --
always happening here,
but expanding throughout the community
to really enliven the arts and cultural and activate downtown.
You know, really working with Mayor Harrell
and his goals of one city and just revitalizing the city,
which Seattle Center is such a bright spot in that,
and we're just excited to welcome everybody back
this summer.
-Alright, well, Marc Jones,
director of marketing for Seattle Center,
thanks for joining us.
-Thank you, Connie.
-Coming up, Bumbershoot isn't the only thing
causing a buzz around town.
How we can all help bees thrive, next.
-So, what's all the buzz about bees?
These industrious little creatures have fascinated us
since our prehistoric ancestors first tasted honey
more than 8,000 years ago.
Fast-forward to today,
and we're still captivated and indebted to bees
for pollinating the staggering number of fruits and vegetables
we depend on.
And then there's that honey.
Producers Kathy Tuohey and Valerie Vozza have more.
[ Bees buzzing ]
-Walk into the backyard of this Seattle home
and you'll hear it.
The hypnotic sound of thousands of bees.
This is where you'll find beekeeper David Reyes.
David has been tending hives for seven years
and is still in awe of their complex universe.
-You know, they're what we call a superorganism,
meaning that, you know, without a beekeeper,
they kind of do their own thing.
They know how to organize themselves,
They know how to defend themselves.
and then they create this great product, which is honey.
-Honey bees live in colonies of thousands,
with one majestic queen,
who lays up to 3,000 eggs a day.
There's also an army of worker bees, all female,
and then there are the male bees, the drones,
whose only job is to mate, and then they die.
Sorry, guys.
All spring and into summer,
the worker bees are busy collecting pollen and nectar.
Each bee will travel up to three miles from their hive
and visit 50 to 100 flowers during one collection trip.
That nectar gets converted to honey for them to eat,
and the excess is ready to be harvested.
-So, this is a frame of capped honey.
So, all that white stuff you see is actually wax
and then underneath it is the honey that we will extract.
-To extract the honey,
the wax caps need to be removed from the cells,
and the uncapped frames are spun in an extractor,
then strained twice to remove any debris.
Finally, the liquid gold is bottled,
labeled, and ready to be enjoyed.
Backyard beekeeping can be very rewarding if done properly.
It can also be time consuming, expensive,
and physically demanding.
So, what's the best way to start?
-One would be to take a class,
and two would be to find a local beekeeping club
to just start developing, you know, relationships
with other beekeepers.
-There are regulations about how many hives you can have
and where they can be placed.
So, getting educated is key,
which brings us to some common misconceptions about bees.
First, not all bees can sting.
Second, not all bees make honey.
And last, not all bees are social bees that live in hives.
In fact, of the 20,000 species of bees across the world,
only 4% are honey producers, and only 8% live in hives.
Dave Hunter, founder of Crown Bees in Woodinville
and an expert on native bees, explains.
-So out of all these bees in North America,
90% of them are solitary,
meaning every single female bee is a queen.
She lays her eggs and she survives six weeks,
and the eggs she laid this year are next year's bees.
Where do they nest?
Three quarters will nest in the ground,
then maybe 20%, 25% nest in holes in a tree or a reed.
-These native bees, like the carpenter bee,
mining bee, squash bee and bumblebee, to name a few,
are really the unsung heroes of the pollinator world.
Without native bees and non-native honey bees,
one-third of the fruits and vegetables we eat
would simply not exist.
We rely on both of them.
However, they spread pollen in very different ways.
Honey bees carry their pollen stuck to their hind legs,
so 95% of pollen heads back to the hive.
Native bees are messier.
-They belly flop into flowers, dry pollen on their sides.
Next flower, belly-flopping in.
The pollen's falling off with every single trip,
and so, 95% of pollen is spread.
-Clearly, native bees are essential to agriculture,
and they're starting to get the attention they deserve,
which is important
because they're declining at a rapid rate.
Competition with honey bees is part of the problem.
Too many hives can overwhelm an area,
pushing native bees away from food sources.
-I'm doing my part by planting a lot of pollinator plants
for both of them.
If we did that on a bigger scale,
then they could coexist better.
-Whether it's pesticides across the country
or where we remove their habitat --
they don't have the food or where they used to nest
or we've introduced disease,
the common denominator is us.
-Dave's goal is to create flourishing communities
of bee raisers
by providing high quality native bees,
bee houses, and guidance for customers all over the country.
These cavity nesting bees, like mason bees and leafcutter bees,
who expertly line their nests with leaves,
are virtually stingless,
and require little maintenance,
making them easy to raise.
-How can we help these bees thrive?
Part of it's education.
What you've learned here, spread to others.
And lastly, if you're in a place where you can raise bees,
try to do so.
-The most important thing we can do for all bees
is to plant more pollinator friendly gardens,
choose native plants with staggered bloom times,
and put away the pesticides.
Also, create nesting sites
by allowing areas of your yard to just go wild.
State and local agencies are already taking steps
to help pollinators.
Seattle City Light, for example,
has transformed several of its properties,
like this magnolia substation, into pollinator habitats.
-It's tough being a bee,
and I think the more that people learn how to help them succeed
and think through their success,
I think the world will be a better place.
-If you're inspired to start a bee-friendly garden
or add to the one you have,
take the guesswork out of your planning
and use an online native plant finder,
or visit your local garden center,
where staff can point you in the right direction.
And remember, if you plant it, they will come.
-That wraps up this edition of "CityStream",
from Seattle Center.
If you want to learn more about the incredible lineup of music,
acts, and artists performing at Bumbershoot,
the website is easy to remember.
It's bumbershoot.com.
I'm Connie Thompson. Thanks for watching.
♪♪