It’s no joke — bees bring Washington Bee Atlas volunteers to the Palouse
A teacher, a veterinarian, and a medical professional walk into a cemetery. No, this isn’t the start of a joke — these people are some of the Washington Bee Atlas volunteers who recently drove from all corners of the state to participate in a bee collection trip on the Palouse.
The trip was part of a unique opportunity to visit both private land (with incredible views!) and two remnant prairie cemeteries in eastern Washington. The opportunity was organized by The Phoenix Conservancy, a nonprofit organization working to reestablish and maintain native prairies in the region.
A close look at native bees
Being rained out on the first day of the three-day trip, the group headed to Washington State University’s (WSU) Entomology Department. Volunteers learned to use microscopes to identify previously collected bees to genus. They were also treated to a tour of WSU’s insect collection, which housed not only local bees and other pollinators, but specimens from around the world.
Bees on the prairie
The next day, the volunteers visited private land in the rolling hills of the Palouse. The land owner is working with The Phoenix Conservancy to return part of the land to native prairie and, eventually, the owner hopes to make it a park that will be open to the public. Volunteers were greeted with stunning views of the hills and the Snake River as they went up and down, visiting flowers and discovering what bees were visiting them.
On the final day of this three-day adventure, the volunteers visited two cemeteries. Both were established during the pioneering days and, as such, were mostly undistributed and bursting with a wild array of native plants honoring those laid to rest with a perennial floral display. While the day started off somewhat cool, the weather eventually began to warm and the bees started buzzing, allowing the volunteers to turn from examining headstones to looking for bees.
Discovering and mapping native bees
As the volunteers spent the weekend together, they not only collected bees but learned more about one another. Despite their differing backgrounds and occupations, their interest in and love for native pollinators has brought them together to participate in this statewide endeavor to discover and map native bees and their plant hosts.
And discover they have.
The Washington Bee Atlas is only starting its second year of the program and the bees collected in 2023 are still being identified. But even in its infancy, this growing group of bee enthusiasts has already documented 10 new state records — species that have never been documented in Washington before — as well as three additional rare bees of which there are very few records. The group expects to identify many more rare and first-find records as the specimen identification continues.
See more photos from this trip in the Washington Bee Atlas Facebook Group.