Have you heard about The Great Native Bee Count? Want to help make it happen?
The goal is $3000 by Oct. 31 "to build the community science tools to make it happen," according to the E. L. Niño Bee Lab at the University of California, Davis.
In spring 2027, "The Great Native Bee Count will invite people across California to use the phone already in their pocket to record flowering plants, when and where they see them, and take photos of visiting bees when they can. Those observations will be shared with existing biodiversity and community science databases," the lab members related.
"You don't need to be an entomologist. You just need curiosity and a phone."
The UC Davis Crowdfund campaign is a short-term fundraising initiative that invites the community to directly support specific UC Davis projects, research, and programs through individual donations. For The Great Native Bee Count, "every gift, at any amount, helps put community science tools into people's hands. Please visit our campaign page here."
Bee scientist Elina Niño is an Extension professor of apiculture, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty; founder and director of the California Master Beekeeper Program, and director of the UC Davis Bee Haven.
The Haven is a half-acre demonstration pollinator garden located on Bee Biology Road, next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. It is open to the public from dawn to dusk. Admission is free.
Cover image: A black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, on Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)