MISSOULA — Here in Montana, wildlife conservation helps maintain the quality of our state.
So, to watch populations, tags are placed on big game. But what about tracking smaller animals like bees?
An initiative by the Xerces Society, the U.S Forest Service, and the Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension is making it easier.
“Life on earth is possible because of pollinators,” stated Marirose Kuhlman, Habitat Specialist with the Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension.
Khulman wants to keep bee populations thriving in the treasure state. “We actually have in Montana around 600 species of bees. And then in Missoula County, we've actually documented 230 species of native bees,” she noted.
However, she says that over the years, the number of insects, which includes bees, is dropping.
Khulman shared, “Globally, insect abundance is declining at a rate of 1 to 2% a year. It means that after 30 years, about 25% of insects are gone.”
Pollinator insects are key to a diverse ecosystem and food system.
“One out of three bites of food that we have comes from plants that are pollinated by an insect,” Rich Hatfield, Senior Conservation Biologist for the Xerces Society told MTN.
The Xeres Society is trying to keep tabs on the amount of bees buzzing around the country. “They’re hard to detect. It's increasingly hard to find their nests. Finding out what the reproductive rates are or how many there are, is, is nearly impossible,” detailed Hatfield.
To get some help, the Xerces Society is calling on the community. Conservation Biologist for the Xerces Society Michelle Toshack said, “Getting people out on the landscape, excited about bees and contributing to scientific research is really valuable in a way that researchers can't do alone.”
There is a nationwide bee atlas teeming with data from everyday people and it’s now available to join in Montana.
Volunteers work as scientists to document bees. Toshack explained, “Put them in a net, put them in a vial, we place them briefly on ice just to chill them and then take a number of photographs so that experts like Rich and myself can identify the bees later. Once the bees wake up, warm up, they fly off unharmed.”
Missoula’s training day is June 1st. Click here to register and for more.
