When a tree service in Ridgefield was removing  a decaying cherry tree to make room for some outdoor exercise equipment for the public, they inadvertently cut down a branch filled with honeybees.
  Although the typical reaction to such an event would be to reach for the pesticide even though the swarming bees did not attack any of the workers, Ridgefield Environmental Commission member Karen Riede reached for her phone instead and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.
   Did we know of any beekeepers who might come to the rescue?
   The short answer was yes –James Coppola of the Essex County Beekeepers Society, who has several hives by the Keegan Landfill in Kearny.
   Jim rushed to Ridgefield and rounded up several hundred bees.  No humans got stung, and the honeybees will be merged with another hive at a time when honeybee numbers have been in sharp decline because of colony collapse.
   Here's a tip of the NJMC hat to Jim Coppola for rescuing the bees, and to Karen Riede for making a good call.
   (Thanks, too, to Bruce Riede, for having the foresight to take the photos accompanying this post.)