Tag Archives: oregon bee project

95 Lincoln Best – The Oregon Bee Atlas (Year 1 Update).

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Although we estimate there are 500 species of bees in Oregon, there has never been a concerted survey of the state’s bees. Without even a checklist of species, it is very difficult to know whether the health of Oregon bees is improving or declining. The Oregon Bee Atlas represents the first steps towards confronting the gulf in our knowledge about the bees of Oregon.

The success of the Oregon Bee Atlas, like Oregon Flora, rests on the shoulders of committed volunteers. The Oregon Bee Atlas’ four year mission (2018-2021) is to train volunteers to explore Oregon Counties, to seek out new native bee records for the state, to boldly go where no amateur melittologist has gone before! These new specimen records will be added to newly digitized historic records from the Oregon State Arthropod Collection to build the first comprehensive account of the native bee fauna of Oregon.

Joining us to talk about the Atlas is Lincoln Best, the Atlas’ Lead Taxonomist. Lincoln was also featured on episode 50 last year.

“It’s easy to document common species; it’s really difficult to assess the extreme biodiversity that exists here.”
– Lincoln Best.

 

 

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Links Mentioned:

Oregon Bee Atlas Website

Oregon Bee Atlas Youtube channel

Follow Linc on social media (Twitter/Instagram/Facebook:) @beesofcanada

 

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82 Sarah Kincaid – Promoting Bee-Friendly Farming

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Sarah Kincaid on PolliNation with Andony Melathopoulos

Sarah Kincaid is an entomologist and pollinator specialist in the Insect, Pest, Prevention, and Management Program (IPPM) with the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA). Sarah is a founder and ODA IPPM project lead for the Oregon Bee Project. The Oregon Bee Project brings together state agencies, farmers, and conservationists to protect and promote Oregon bee species vital the state’s agricultural and native landscapes. The Project aims to provide resources and networking opportunities in areas affecting bee health and to highlight pollinator projects underway with in the state and also has funded research examining the role non-Apis pollinators play in the pollination of several specialty crops. Sarah is also the author of an identification guide to Common Bee Pollinators of Oregon crops based on data from native bee surveys in 24 specialty crop systems. The guide is designed to provide the growers, the general public and natural resources professionals with basic information about agriculturally relevant bee genera. The guide serves an area of the country were few native bee identification resources are available. In this episode, Sarah talks about an initiative in the Oregon Bee Project called the Flagship Farm Program.

Listen in to learn how Sarah and the Flagship Farms program work with farmers to create sustainable ecosystems for pollinators, and how you can participate.

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“We’re a specialty crop state and many of those depend on pollination, and if they depend on pollination, that means they provide a resource for the bees themselves.” – Sarah Kincaid

Show Notes:

  • What makes Flagship Farms unique among pollinator programs
  • Why Oregon has a higher diversity of bees in agriculture than many other states
  • Why the Flagship Farms program was created and what Sarah is hoping to accomplish with it
  • What kinds of farms and farmers Sarah is hoping will join the program
  • What Sarah has seen so far in the participating farms
  • The unique properties that different crop farms offer for pollinators
  • How the Flagship Farms program has built a community of conservancy minded farms
  • What resources Sarah and her program offer the Flagship Farms

“Given that there’s a narrative that paints agriculture in a really negative light when it comes to insect biodiversity, we came up with the idea that there is a positive story that we can tell here.” – Sarah Kincaid

Links Mentioned:

50 Lincoln Best – Taxonomy with The Oregon Bee Atlas

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Lincoln Best on PolliNation with Andony Melathopoulos

Lincoln Best is the Lead Taxonomist for the Oregon Bee Project/Atlas. He is obsessed with natural history, the little things, and designing plant communities to support biodiversity. He has studied the biodiversity of native bees from Haida Gwaii to Tasmania, and from Baja California to Taiwan. Few things excite him more than observing 4mm native bees on their floral hosts in arid habitats.

Listen in to learn about Lincoln Best’s manifesto for native bees and plant communities, and his best practices for volunteers in the Oregon Bee Atlas.

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“A lot of our environmental issues are landscape issues. So in order to have a healthy landscape, we need to know how to manage places and also restore them.” – Lincoln Best

Show Notes:

  • What Lincoln believes to be the key to solving our environmental issues
  • How to maximize environmental benefit from the biodiversity of plants
  • What Lincoln has been doing with the Oregon Bee Atlas
  • The process of organizing and cataloguing thousands of bee specimens
  • What makes Southern Calgary ideal for studying the effects of biodiversity on pollinator habitats
  • The importance of proper labeling
  • Lincoln’s best practices for data and specimen collection
  • How species abundance plays into specimen collection

“It’s really interesting for someone like me that loves to hunt for flower populations and look for these strange bees to be able to get that data right out of the collection.” – Lincoln Best

Links Mentioned: