Partnership & Grantee Highlights
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Leading Vermont’s Native Bee Inventories
The Vermont Wild Bee Survey was launched in 2019 to inventory the state of Vermont’s wild bees throughout. Previously very little was known about bees in Vermont other than the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) and Bumble Bees (genus Bombus). Four years of intensive fieldwork from VCE has led to numerous discoveries of regional significance and amassed a unique and powerful dataset of more than 60,000 occurrence records for the more than 350 bee species now known from the state.
From this work, VCE published the State of Vermont’s Wild Bees, a detailed look into the current knowledge, threats, and conservation of these important pollinators. This work has also been shared through dozens of presentations in at least 8 counties.
While VCE continues population monitoring through community science observations and dedicated Bumble Bee monitoring, they are shifting their focus to outreach and conservation efforts. Already VCE has been invited to assist with several regional and national collaborations focused on bee conservation assessments and are working closely with partners from UVM, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and others on Vermont pollinator issues. Funding from Once Hive will be used to continue long-term Bumble Bee monitoring, publish an annotated checklist of the bees of Vermont, and continue VCE outreach efforts.
Links to learn more:
https://val.vtecostudies.org/projects/vtbees/
https://vtecostudies.org/resource-center/handouts/
While VCE continues population monitoring through community science observations and dedicated Bumble Bee monitoring, they are shifting their focus to outreach and conservation efforts. Already VCE has been invited to assist with several regional and national collaborations focused on bee conservation assessments and are working closely with partners from UVM, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and others on Vermont pollinator issues. Funding from Once Hive will be used to continue long-term Bumble Bee monitoring, publish an annotated checklist of the bees of Vermont, and continue VCE outreach efforts.
Links to learn more:
https://val.vtecostudies.org/projects/vtbees/
https://vtecostudies.org/resource-center/handouts/
07.17.2023
07.17.2023
07.17.2023