Discovering and Conserving Pollinator Biodiversity

"But of the great majority of insects scarcely anything is known either good or evil."
Zadock Thompson, 1842, Vermont's first naturalist.

Welcome to the pilot year of the Vermont Bumblebee Survey (VTbees). This project aims to document the relative abundance and distribution of bumblebees (Bombus), as well as the Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica), across Vermont. Bumblebees, familiar and flashy insects, are silent messengers of environmental conditions. They respond to changing land use practices and other human-induced pressures. Yet we know so little about the bumblebees of Vermont. There is no statewide data bank, no atlas of their distribution, no scientific assessment of the threats they face, and no conservation concept for bee species statewide. With this in mind, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) initiated the Vermont Bumblebee Survey in 2012.

The survey will make essential data available to landowners, land-use planners, policy-makers, municipalities, and other individuals or organizations making conservation and management decisions. VTBees is closely modeled after the recently completed Vermont Butterfly Survey. Our results will allow direct comparisons among states, with scientific and conservation implications extending throughout the Northeast. In short, this project offers the opportunity for individuals, either professional or amateur, to make a significant contribution to the greater understanding Vermont's natural heritage.

Field work will relies heavily on volunteers like you. Participants need little experience to join the survey—only an interest in bees!