Bees Are Now Cleared for Landing at Airports
A jet taxied down a nearby runway, the roar of its engines merging with the buzz of thousands of wings. His head covered with a beekeeper’s veil, Alexandre Beaudoin lifted a frame out of one of five hives, each housing about 70,000 bees.
一架噴射機在附近跑道上滑行，引擎的呼嘯聲混合著成千上萬對翅膀抖動的嗡嗡聲。亞歷山卓．畢多因頭戴養蜂人頭罩，從五個蜂房之一取出一個架子，每個蜂房大約住了7萬隻蜜蜂。
The hives had been in place a few months, and Mr. Beaudoin seemed pleased with the results.
這些蜂房已安放了幾個月，畢多因似乎對結果很滿意。
“This frame is full of eggs; this is really nice, really good info,” he said. “It tells me my hive is in really good health.”
他說：「這個架子上都是卵；這太好了，真是好消息。這告訴我，我的蜂房非常健康。」
To find these hives, you would have to travel the warren of back roads at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport, go through a parking lot and onto a grass enclosure. Beyond are the airport’s 2,500 hectares.
要找到這些蜂房，必須走過蒙特婁-米拉貝爾國際機場密密麻麻的小路，穿過一個停車場，進入一片有圍籬的草地。遠方是近2500公頃的機場。
Last year, Aeroports de Montreal, which runs both of the city’s airports, Mirabel and Montreal-Trudeau International, approached Miel Montreal, a beekeeping cooperative. As part of its environmental initiative, it wanted to start a project placing beehives in an empty field. The hives were installed in June.
去年，經營這個城市的兩座機場，米拉貝爾機場和蒙特婁-杜魯道機場的蒙特婁機場公司，找上養蜂合作社「蒙特婁蜂蜜」。該公司要展開一項計畫，把蜂房設在一塊空地上，這是公司環保方案的項目之一。這些蜂房在去年六月安裝好。
Mirabel is just the latest in what is becoming a common undertaking – keeping beehives on airport green space. For airports, beehives can be an easy way to show their concern for the environment while putting space to work in fields that legally cannot be built on. Hamburg Airport in Germany began such a project in 1999. Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Dresden, Hannover, Leipzig/Halle, Nuremberg and Munich followed. Since then, Malmo Airport in Sweden, Copenhagen, Chicago’s O’Hare, Seattle-Tacoma International and Lambert-St. Louis International have all welcomed beehives.
米拉貝爾機場只是已成為一種常見事業的最新例子－在機場綠地上設蜂房。對機場來說，蜂房可以是表現他們關心環境，又善加利用法律上不能有建物的空地的簡便之道。德國的漢堡機場在1999年開始這類計畫。杜塞道夫、法蘭克福、德勒斯登、漢諾威、萊比錫/哈勒、紐倫堡和慕尼黑機場也跟進。在那之後，瑞典的馬爾默機場、哥本哈根機場、芝加哥奧黑爾機場、西雅圖-塔科馬國際機場和蘭伯特-聖路易國際機場，也都歡迎蜂房。
Bees tend to do well in urban environments where there are people to manage the hives, a diversity of flowers and no agricultural pesticides.
在有人管理蜂房、花卉多樣化而且沒有農藥的都市環境，蜜蜂會過得很好。
Copenhagen Airport’s plans to become a major Scandinavian hub turned into an opportunity for the city’s bees. The airport bought a large plot of land to build on, but a muddy pond on the lot was home to the protected European green toad, according to Oliver Maxwell of the City Bee Association in Copenhagen. “So they were holding this piece of land for the last few years wondering what to do with it, and now it’s overgrown and actually this beautiful meadow with wildflowers,” he said.
哥本哈根城市蜜蜂協會的奧立佛．麥斯威爾說，哥本哈根機場想成為斯堪的納維亞半島主要樞紐的計畫，成為城市蜜蜂的大好機會。機場買了一大塊地要大興土木，但這塊地上一個泥巴池是受保護的歐洲綠蟾蜍的家。他說：「因此，過去幾年他們保留這塊地，不知如何處理，現在長滿了植物，事實上這是一片長滿野花的美麗草地。」
Now there are 15 hives on the site, tended by Mr. Maxwell’s group, and some of the honey is sold in the airport’s gift shops.
現在這塊地上有15個蜂房，由麥斯威爾的團隊照顧。部分蜂蜜在機場的禮品店銷售。
At European airports, the focus is often on using bee products as biomarkers to detect pollutants. Malmo Airport began testing honey and beeswax from its hives in 2009. The results indicate that levels of heavy metals, volatile organic hydrocarbons and polyaromatic hydrocarbons are well below European Union limits, and have remained consistent from year to year.
歐洲機場通常把重點擺在以蜜蜂產品為偵測汙染物質的生物標記。馬爾默機場2009年開始檢測蜂房內的蜂蜜和蜂蠟。結果顯示重金屬、揮發性有機碳氫化合物和多環芳香烴碳氫化合物的含量，都比歐盟的限制低得多，而且年年都維持穩定。
For nearly a decade, scientists have been alarmed by steep drops in honeybee populations. Annual losses of around 30 percent, on average, have been attributed to colony collapse disorder and other pressures, including diseases, pesticides, extreme weather and habitat loss. The toll appeared to ease slightly last year, though researchers cautioned that one year hardly indicated a trend.
近十年來，蜜蜂數量直線下降驚動了科學家。平均每年減少約三成，歸因於蜂群崩潰症候群和其他壓力，包括疾病、農藥、極端天氣和棲息地的喪失。去年死亡總數稍微減少，不過研究人員審慎認為，只有一年看不出趨勢。
While airport hives will have only a limited role in propping up bee populations, Elina Lastro Niño, an apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, said that as long as there was no spraying of pesticides, airports could make great environments for honeybees, and could help educate the public.
雖然機場蜂房在增進蜜蜂數量上，只扮演有限角色，戴維斯加州大學養蜂專家艾琳娜．拉斯特羅．尼紐說，只要不灑農藥，機場可以成為蜜蜂的絕佳環境，也有助於教育民眾。
“If you have an airport where you’re selling honey that comes from the airport itself,” Dr. Niño said, travelers are likely to become “more aware of issues with honey.”
尼紐博士說，「如果機場賣機場自家生產的蜂蜜」，旅客可能會「更注意蜂蜜這議題。」
（田思怡譯）
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