Trail alert for hikers, bikers after ‘millions’ of bees released in Summit County

SUMMIT COUNTY — Summit County closed some of its recreation trails for a few days while bee keepers work to collect “millions” of bees.

A truck carrying more than 200 bee hives swerved to avoid a deer Monday and dumped its load to the pavement, two people were stung multiple times and were taken to a hospital with other minor injures.

After the hives were dashed open, Summit County said millions of bees are estimated to be on the loose and asked that people avoid walking, biking or riding through the Silver Creek section of Rail Trail for several days.

“Local beekeepers are working to recover as many bees as possible,” the county said in a tweet.

Silver Creek runs through Summit County, including along Interstate 80 where Monday’s crash happened. The Rail Trail is a 28-mile pedestrian and bike route built on an old rail line through Summit County. Portions of it are adjacent to Silver Creek and to I 80.

Bees, as a species, are known to be having wide ranging difficulties in recent years and are known as nature’s hardest working pollinators. They are essential to plant health.

Honeybees did better in 2020, after a much higher-than-average loss of hives in 2019.

Utah is known as The Beehive State and was found to have more than 900 species of bees in a Utah State University Study.