A Citizen Science Project Exploring Bee Biodiversity in Northern Colorado
Native Bee Watch Newsletter #9
Welcome to the Native Bee Watch Newsletter! This newsletter provides the current buzz on bee monitoring, tips for best practice observing, and other fun, educational resources. Enjoy! 
Happy Holidays from Native Bee Watch!
Looking Forward to 2017

What a year! 2016 was the first year for Native Bee Watch and it was a very successful first season. All the data has been entered, and we are now processing and analyzing it. Thanks to your monitoring efforts, here are numbers at a glance:
  • 4 months of monitoring
  • 22 volunteers
  • 60 monitoring sessions (34 included citizen scientists)
  • Over 3,700 bees observed 
  • 1,630 lines of data in the spreadsheet

Preliminary results will be available later in the spring. Thank you for all your hard work throughout the past summer! 

A Ghost in the Making: Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee

In the November newsletter, there was a link about how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has proposed the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee should be listed on the Endangered Species List. 

Citizen scientist and self-proclaimed "bee groupie" Linda shared the following video . Her friend, Clay is the producer and writer. 

Summary: 

Everyone has heard about bee declines, but with so much attention focused on domesticated honeybees, someone has to speak up for the 4,000 species of native bees in North America. Natural history photographer Clay Bolt is on a multi-year quest to tell the stories of our native bees, and one elusive species – the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee – has become his white whale.

Traveling from state to state in search of the Rusty-patched, he meets the scientists and conservationists working tirelessly to preserve it. Clay’s journey finally brings him to Wisconsin, where he comes face to face with his quarry and discovers an answer to the question that has been nagging him: why save a species?

This is a lovely 20-minute video to share with your family and friends. Check out RustyPatched.com .
Buzzing Information on Bees 
6 Scientists, 1,000 Miles, 1 Prize: The Arctic Bumblebee.  Think Colorado is chilly? Can you imagine being a ground-nesting bumble bee living in the Arctic? 

City Bees Are Actually More Diverse Than Country Bees. A study in the U.K. finds that bee diversity is higher in urban areas than in farmland and nature preserves. 
Missed a Newsletter or a Native Bee Watch Update? 

All newsletters and updates are available on the website at  nativebeewatch.wordpress.com . Previous newsletters are also here: 

Newsletter #7 - September 5
Native Bee Watch: A Citizen Science Project Exploring Bee Biodiversity in Northern Colorado

Website: nativebeewatch.wordpress.com     Contact: Lisa Mason at Lisa.Mason@ColoState.edu