The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State University partner with national nonprofit to launch statewide effort to conserve Iowa’s pollinators
A new statewide project is looking for Iowa volunteers to help researchers track and monitor the state’s at-risk bumble bees. The Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas is a collaboration between the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Iowa State University, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that aims to understand native bumble bee distributions and their habitat needs throughout the state.
Iowa is home to at least 14 species of bumble bees that play an essential role in sustaining the health of the environment, from pollinating native wildflowers to flowering crops in farm fields and backyard gardens. Unfortunately, several bumble bee species native to Iowa have undergone alarming declines and face an uncertain future.
“The recent listing of the rusty patched bumble bee as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is increasing the need to collect data on the occurrence of all bumble bee species in our state,” said Dr. Matthew O’Neal, professor of entomology at Iowa State University.
The effort is one of a growing number of Bumble Bee Atlas projects run by the Xerces Society and their partners in 20 states. In 2023 alone, more than 900 individuals participated in the Atlas, documenting over 20,000 bumble bees. The volunteers have discovered species previously thought to be gone from their states, contributed to new field guides, and rapidly improved scientists’ understanding of bumble bee populations across the United States. Without the efforts of these “community scientists”, it would be impossible to gather information across such a wide geographic area. Read more