Professor takes stock of bees at Clark College’s bee campusTrending

The Fourth of July isn’t the only time Clark County residents get to see a dazzling display of color. The wildflowers at Clark College’s bee gardens are in full bloom. From the scarlet red of ornamental poppies to the stark white and lemon yellow of daisies to the vivid blues, oranges and pink of dozens of other wildflowers, the gardens are a sight to behold.

As beautiful as they are, there is more to the bee gardens than pretty flowers. The gardens provide pollen and nectar to native bees along with nesting habitat.

“There are more species of bees in Washington than there are birds,” biology professor Steven Clark said.

Clark College’s bee campus is comprised of four gardens totaling roughly 3 acres. There are three gardens along Fort Vancouver Way and a fourth garden on East McLoughlin Boulevard across from Marshall Park.

Clark got the idea for a bee campus after learning about a program on the East Coast. It took about a year to complete the work. Clark College is now the fifth college in the state to earn a Bee Campus certificate.

“A bee campus is a college that has established gardens, flowers and nesting sites, and that means bare dirt,” he said. “No. 1, you have to have food for them. No. 2, you have to have a nesting spot.”

Clark said it might not seem obvious at first, but bare dirt is an important part of the bee garden because about 70 percent of Washington’s native bees are ground-nesting.

Each month, Clark completes a bee survey. The survey is done by walking a transect or straight line along the edge of the gardens. Using a stopwatch, he observes and counts the number of bees he finds on the flowers. That includes tiny sweat bees, larger mason bees, fuzzy miner bees or bumblebees. Even non-native honeybees are counted.

“Our native bees are so small, they’re the size of a fly. You can miss them,” Clark said. “And when it’s windy, the native bees will hunker down. The bumblebees don’t care.”

Why is Clark keeping detailed records? He said he wants to know — and be able to answer — how many bees are in the gardens and whether that number is growing.

This is the second year the garden has bloomed. He said last year, the plants were kind of “scrubby,” but they’ve really filled in this year. The first year’s seed mix also included flowering plants that weren’t native to Washington, such as ornamental poppies. This year, Clark said he was much more careful about what was planted.

“There’s probably about 40 different species of flowers here, plus whatever the wind blows in,” he said, referring to Canadian thistle and morning glory seen growing along the edges.

Clark hopes the gardens will spur people into learning more about native flowers and the native bees and other insects, such as damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies and wasps, living in them.

On Monday, Clark was at the garden in front of the college’s STEM building to do a survey. Dozens of bumblebees, mostly females, were spotted gathering pollen from the flowers.

“The back leg, that’s where they pack the pollen,” Clark said, pointing out the bright orange pollen carried by a bumblebee.

Clark momentarily captured a bee in a glass jar before releasing it, perhaps a little aggravated but unharmed, back into the garden. Clark doesn’t worry about being stung.

“These native bees don’t sting,” he said. “You’d have to put your hand on them.”

Clark said most people get stung by honeybees or wasps, which have a more painful and long-lasting sting. He said the sting from native bees isn’t usually very painful and lasts for a short time.

As the wildflowers have come into bloom over the past weeks, some visitors have been spotted cutting or pulling the flowers. While he understands they’re beautiful and people want to bring that beauty home, he said there are two important reasons to leave the flowers alone.

“The flowers are the grocery store for the bees. Clark College planted the flowers so we could offer resources to our native bees,” Clark said.

The other reason is because of the potential damage to the bees’ habitat.

“They lay their eggs in the soil under the flowers. When people walk into the flowers, they can crush the nurseries that hold next year’s baby bees,” he said.

Instead, Clark said he hopes people will appreciate the bee gardens for what they are — a place to watch and learn more about bees.