(Spirit Lake) The Dickinson County Conservation Board is inviting the community to learn about the Bumblebee atlas. Amy Heibult, Dickinson County Conservation Board Community Relations Coordinator, shares more.
“This month’s speaker we have Dr. Genevieve Pugesek coming out. She’s from the Xerces Society and she will be talking about the Iowa Bumblebee Atlas which is a community science project where people can sign up for the training and they can go through the different protocols that are required for collecting bumblebees and identifying them. And this all goes into a database that scientists can use for various purposes to track bumblebees.”
Heibult says bumblebees are very valuable.
“Bumblebees are incredibly important to our area, specifically Iowa because they have adaptations that are meant for our wildflowers that are native to here. They’ve evolved all these characteristics that make them strong and very resilient to our weather and winters here. They’re actually one of the only species that can really pry open certain flowers of our native plants, specifically false indigo. They’re incredibly important to our crops like tomatoes and peppers so if you like your garden veggies bumblebees are incredibly important.”
The Kenue Coffee hour starts at 10:30 on Thursday and will be held as Maser Monarch Lodge. Then from 5 to 7 that evening the Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas staff will be training 20 pre registered people at a Field Day at Dickinson County Nature Center. For more information or to pre-register for these events go to dickinsoncountyconservationboard.com
