US National Native Bee Monitoring RCN

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There are more than 4,000 native bee species in the United States, with many species yet to be described. These native bees pollinate our native plants and agricultural crops, add beauty to our world, and are deserving of protection. The US National Native Bee Monitoring Research Coordination Network (RCN) is a USDA-funded effort to coordinate and support efforts to monitor native bee populations in the US, with the broader goal of conserving our nation's native bee fauna.

From 2020-2023, native bee biologists from across the US will work together to develop a national plan for native bee monitoring. The plan will include components such as monitoring protocols and the designation of priority areas for monitoring. The RCN will also develop new educational and training opportunities in areas that are fundamental to native bee monitoring.

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Take the North American Native Bee Monitoring Survey!

We worked with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) to develop the North American Native Bee Monitoring Survey as part of the CEC's trilateral effort, Advancing Pollinator Conservation throughout North America. This survey was created to assess the status of native bee monitoring projects in North America and the results will be shared via a CEC report (later this year) and in the RCN's US National Native Bee Monitoring Strategy document (2023). The deadline for having information included in the CEC report is July 15, but the RCN effort will also be capturing survey responses beyond this date.

Are you currently or have you ever coordinated a native bee monitoring project?
We are looking for information on any such projects in the US, Canada, or Mexico.

Take the Survey!

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RCN-related news & updates

• We think a lot about the availability and quality of bee specimen data in the US. This thoughtful and detailed blog post by Dr. Zach Portman describes trends in the sources of US bee data on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
  
• We are excited about this new paper from Emma Briggs and colleagues on mark-recapture methods for sampling wild bees. There's also a great blog post describing the work put in to the paper!
  
• We are hard at work planning two workshops for Spring 2022: one on a bee monitoring protocol for the Bureau of Land Management, the other on the role of Cooperative Extension in native bee monitoring.
• We are excited about this new paper from RCN co-organizer Tam Smith and colleagues on rusty patched bumble bee nest observations.
• We talked with Dr. Mark Genung about surveying native bees in Louisiana's rare Cajun Prairie habitat.
• We hosted our third collaborative workshop on federal agency needs and efforts related to native bee monitoring.
• We hosted our second collaborative workshop on conservation goals for a national bee monitoring plan.
• We talked with MaLisa Spring about coordinating the Ohio Bee Survey.
• We are gearing up for a busy fall with two workshops: one on conservation goals for native bee monitoring and one on monitoring efforts of federal government agencies.
• We talked with Dr. Michael Orr about his work with Anthophora miner bees and a paper on global bee distributions.
• We hosted our first collaborative workshop on the vision for a national native bee monitoring plan. We had 150 attendees who heard about successful monitoring programs such as eBird, the Backyard Bird count, the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, the Oregon Bee Atlas, and more.
• We launched The Bee Short Course for Community Scientists with the entomology program at The Ohio State University: a seven month seminar series on bee biology, identification, photography, and more!
• We talked with Janene Lichtenberg about her work with huckleberry pollinating native bees in Montana.
• We talked with Dr. Jessica Rykken about her work monitoring native bees in Alaska.
• We launched The Great American Bee Count on iNaturalist, an umbrella project gathering existing bee monitoring projects across the US.
• We were featured in The New York Times!
• We were featured on Forbes.com! Learn more about our efforts to monitor native bees across the US.
• We would like to sincerely thank Dr. Zach Portman for supplying many of the bee photographs on this website, and also for being the interviewee for our first blog post, which you can read here.

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Coming soon:

Increased support for bee taxonomy and monitoring

Schedule of events

Opportunities for public engagement

OUR GOAL

Coordinate and support native bee monitoring efforts across the US
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