(Photo: Jeremy Royall / Flickr)Sea-Tac Airport in Washington State has launched a new program to help honey bees repopulate, according to KOMO News.
The program places a dozen hives in the far corners of the runways of the airport, which has 853 daily flights.
Bob Redmond, who is spearheading the program, said the bees don’t pose any threat to the aircrafts’ engines.
Redmond said the program was created to help save the honey bees at a time when the species is dying worldwide at alarming rates. Redmond said if the bees die, humans would lose a lot of food.
“70 or 80 percent of the variety of food that we eat is pollinated by bees,” said Redmond. “So without bees, we’d be eating corn and wheat and rice, pretty much.”
Redmond was able to launch the program thanks to the few-thousand-dollar donations he received and Sea-Tac’s permission to use the land.
The plan will raise genetically healthy honey bees, which will help local farmers.
The continued operation of the program will be funded by sales of the honey from the bees’ hives.
