UI Extension starts bee ID program, targets state bee atlas
Cataloging Idaho bees will benefit crops and the ecosystem, according to researchers who are recruiting and training volunteers to help.
“We’re figuring out that these native bee species are almost certainly better pollinators than Apis mellifera, the European honeybee,” University of Idaho Canyon County Extension horticulture and entomology educator Brad Stokes said in a release.
Pomologists, for example, believe the native blue orchard bee will be more crucial in pollinating orchards than domesticated honeybees, according to UI.
Idaho has many crops — including some 140 in the Caldwell area and many seed crops — “and we have a diversity of native bees that have been undocumented to date,” Stokes said. “You can’t predict something if you don’t know what species you have.”
UI Extension is working to build a program that will train volunteers to collect and identify bees. Establishing an Idaho bee atlas and expanding the pool of people with bee knowledge are among goals.
Canyon County resident Karen Blyth pursues bees during a Sept. 12 training session at Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge near Nampa, Idaho. University of Idaho Extension is starting a master melittologist program in partnership with Oregon State University Extension.
Melathopoulos was instrumental in creating the OSU master melittologist program in 2018. The program trains citizen scientists to collect, document and curate Pacific Northwest bee specimens. Volunteers take on more scientifically significant tasks as they advance through training and qualifications. Their work is verified by a taxonomist.
Melathopoulos and Stokes are working together to expand the program into Idaho, according to UI.
Bitner and the College of Idaho, a private liberal arts school in Caldwell, in 2020 received a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant of $87,000 to evaluate native bees in Treasure Valley specialty crop fields.
The work is important because “we have over 700 known bee species in Idaho, but we can estimate there’s probably more species that haven’t been captured or identified to date,” Stokes said in an interview. “Capturing the data for those species, in combination with their nectar sources, is crucial for pollinator health in Idaho.”
And newly identified species could be closely associated with rare flowers or plants, making these bees vital to ecosystems, he said.
The Great Basin has the highest bee diversity in the world, and Idaho “sits at the crossroads of three major bee faunas,” Melathopoulos said in the release. “All of the cool bees are in Idaho.”
New species will be added to the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History and USDA Pollinating Insect Lab in Logan, Utah.
Stokes is building the volunteer base and seeking money to sustain the program. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has provided funding for identification of bee species collected on national wildlife refuges in Idaho. Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge, near Nampa, hosted the recent session.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture in 2023 started a bee survey and state bee atlas using master melittologist program volunteers.
