Katy Morikawa Katy Morikawa

As I dove head first into love with the wild world, I’ve become aware of a longing. Where this longing comes from I am not sure, although surely it has a sturdy shelter in my own heart. It is fed by the magical interactions you encounter when you slow down and listen deeply to the wild world with an open mind. I find myself longing to create a more diverse native ecosystem on this piece of property where we built our house, to coax more wild beauty from this place--and to do it without landscaping, without agri-forestry, without a fence (at least, without a permanent fence).

READ POST/TRANSCRIPT: https://www.katymorikawa.com/to-coax-more-wild-beauty-from-this-place/

REFERENCES

Montaigne, F. (2020, January). “The Fertile Shore.” Smithsonian Magazine. January 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2022 from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-humans-came-to-americas-180973739/
Agastache foeniculum. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:45, June 24, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agastache_foeniculum&oldid=1094321340
Restoration ecology. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:53, June 26, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Restoration_ecology&oldid=1087785347
Oldenburg, D. (1997, June 16). “Consummate Consumer.” The Washington Post. Retrieved June 26, 2022 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/06/16/consummate-consumer/1388258c-5642-470b-bc91-5d8151dfacf3/

LINKS
Stefan Sobkowiak on Building Your Permaculture Property, Episode 19 (the megafauna and giant beaver segment starts at 55:10) https://open.spotify.com/episode/6iBVR29NqNH6kwefE7Lp1A

Stefan Sobkowiak's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/StefanSobkowiak

Backstory Episode #0133: Untrammelled: Americans and the Wilderness (the Forest "Primeval" segment is first) https://www.backstoryradio.org/shows/untrammeled3/#segment-the-forest-primeval

USDA’s NRCS https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/

The Natural Communities of Virginia Classification of Ecological Groups and Community Types https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/natural-communities/

The Ohio PawPaw Festival https://www.ohiopawpawfest.com/

Primal Life Tooth Powder https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NWVWHY6

Now Xyli-White Toothpaste https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Solutions-XyliWhite-Refreshmint-Toothpaste/dp/B000MGWIE8

I took a tour of Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary this weekend, and so that is part of the magical mystery tour. But deeper still, there is a living landscape opening up beneath my feet as I step, as I am called, (even enchanted!) back outside into the living world, remembering things like native ecologies, principles of permaculture and biodynamic farming, imaginal dances with nature, and even the longer geologic spans of life's evolution on this planet. I believe we are headed back to the Garden, a new Eden, bringing our tools and technology along the way. But more on that in the time to come as I experiment with the ideas unfolding around me -- I can't wait to discover what there is to discover! 

READ POST/TRANSCRIPT: https://www.katymorikawa.com/the-magical-mystery-tour/ 

TOURING SPIKENARD FARM HONEYBEE SANCTUARY

If you missed the tour, don’t feel envious! They open their doors to the public for free tours throughout the growing season, usually on the last Friday of the month. This is the upcoming schedule:


June 24, 2022 – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
July 29, 2022 – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
August 26, 2022 – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
September 16, 2022 – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
October 7, 2022 – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.

LINKS: Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary https://spikenardfarm.org/  

Stefan Sobkowiak's video on How Wasps Saved My Orchard https://youtu.be/g6G9UFgHkCs 

Sustain Floyd https://sustainfloyd.org/ 

OTHER BREADCRUMBS: 


https://www.permaculturedesignmagazine.com/virginia
https://eco-institute.org/
https://www.permaculturewomen.com/
https://miracle.farm/
https://www.youtube.com/c/StefanSobkowiak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenoptera

This is a deeper dive into carpenter bee ecology, supplemented by first-hand observations and my own speculations. We look at native flowering cycles in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, remember the American chestnut, and consider the resources for climate change offered by such a widely adaptable generalist pollinator as the carpenter bee. More deeply, we acknowledge the transformative power in relating with a bee-ing for its own sake.

READ POST/TRANSCRIPT: https://www.katymorikawa.com/borer-bees-iii-carpenter-bee-as-native-pollinator/

REERENCES/LINKS:

Podcast with entomologist: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7ytRKlFyXS6EcoDSJV6uy7

American chestnut. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:42, May 30, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_chestnut&oldid=1088371741

The Lord of the Forest: the American Chestnut. Retrieved from Our State https://www.ourstate.com/american-chestnut/

Photo of Loggers in a Great Smoky Mountains forest (standing among giant American chestnut trees) https://www.katymorikawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Loggers-in-a-Great-Smoky-Mountain-chestnut-tree-forest.jpg

Moissett, B. (March 4, 2013). Pollinators of the American Chestnut. Retrieved May 30, 2022 from Pollinators http://pollinators.blogspot.com/2013/03/pollinators-of-american-chestnut.html

Robinia pseudoacacia. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:42, May 30, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robinia_pseudoacacia&oldid=1089479918

Natural Range of the American Chestnut Tree. Retrieved May 30, 2022 from The American Chestnut Foundation https://acf.org/the-american-chestnut/native-range-map/.

Natural distribution map for Robinia pseudoacacia, black locust. By Elbert L. Little, Jr., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Robinia_pseudoacacia_distribution_map.png

Monofloral honey. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:42, May 30, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monofloral_honey&oldid=1062933894

At the end of Consider the Borer Bee (Episode 24), now a few weekends ago, Michael and I built some cute bee houses for my friend and for our own house, inspired by the veritable plethora of DIY YouTube videos and Amazon products for housing solitary bees. The idea behind these houses is that you can deter borer bees from your wood siding by providing ready-made housing which they prefer over the far greater effort involved in drilling their own. This is the story of our saga to charm our carpenter bees into the bee house. Spoiler alert: We succeeded, and experienced a multitude of tiny joys along the way.

READ THE POST/TRANSCRIPT: https://www.katymorikawa.com/borer-bees-ii-the-carpenter-bee-house-saga

Let’s face it, most of us, most of the time, assume insects are simply too tiny and primitive to interact with in any meaningful way except to objectify as pest, mindless bug, or at best, ecological agent (e.g., pollinator, predator, or even food). After working with bees and wasps, I’m convinced there is so much more to them, and I have updates on my carpenter bee saga to share in the next few posts. But here, I want to look at age-old attitudes toward insects and their surprising lack of representation even among indigenous wisdom traditions where you would expect to find them.

READ POST/TRANSCRIPT: https://www.katymorikawa.com/the-least-of-these-our-insect-teachers/

REFERENCES:


Capinera, J. L. Insects in Art and Religion: The American Southwest. American Entomologist, Volume 39, Issue 4, Winter 1993, Pages 221–230, https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/39.4.221 
Si, A., & Turpin, M. (2015). The Importance of Insects in Australian Aboriginal Society: A Dictionary Survey. Ethnobiology Letters, 6(1), 175–182. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26423615 
Native American Insects of Myth and Legend. Retrieved May 24, 2022 from Native Languages of the Americas website http://www.native-languages.org/legends-insect.htm 
Canyon de Chelly & Kokyangwuti: Spider Woman. Retrieved May 28, 2022 from Okar Research blog http://balkhandshambhala.blogspot.com/2013/04/canyon-de-chelly-kokyangwuti.html 

Borer bees can be the bane of homeowners with wood siding and other exterior wood. Accordingly, a multi-million dollar industry has arisen around killing and deterring them. But I discovered this month there is much more at stake, as I tried to get a group of borer bees to move using the method I shared in my last post, "Talking to the Bees." The stakes, I came to see, have to do with our relationship with native species. This shocking insight led me to discover the relatively smaller but well-established industry of adorable bee houses which reflect a growing realization about the importance of native pollinators.

READ POST/TRANSCRIPT: https://www.katymorikawa.com/consider-the-borer-bee/

LINKS: Our bee houses: https://www.katymorikawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IMG_9565.jpeg 

“Bee Basics: An Introduction to Our Native Bees,” by Beatriz Moisset, Ph.D. and Stephen Buchmann, Ph.D. with USDA Forest Service https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/SC/Bee_Basics_North_American_Bee_ID.pdf

REFERENCES

Carpenter bee. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:57, May 16, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carpenter_bee&oldid=1083160770
Eastern carpenter bee. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:42, May 16, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eastern_carpenter_bee&oldid=1069100416
Penn State Extension. (March 8, 2021). “The Eastern Carpenter Bee: Beneficial Pollinator or Unwelcome Houseguest?” Retrieved May 16, 2022 from Penn State Extension https://extension.psu.edu/the-eastern-carpenter-bee-beneficial-pollinator-or-unwelcome-houseguest
U.S. Geological Survey. “How many species of native bees are in the United States?” Retrieved May 16, 2022 from USGS https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-many-species-native-bees-are-united-states