Greetings Region 5 bee samplers!

For your reading pleasure, you can access the final report summarizing and analyzing results of the 2008 Region 5 bee study here. Thank you so much for your participation!

The most important findings of this study were:
(1) confirmation that bee samples from multiple fields on the same refuge unit were more similar than those sampled from different units, which means we can treat samples from multiple sites on a refuge unit as statistical samples. This is very important for facilitating comparisons of bee populations and communities through space and time.
(2) Our volunteer-based approach works! Volunteers are willing and able to do an excellent job collecting and returning bees, along with all necessary sampling data, and we are able to process samples efficiently back in the lab.

All this is very encouraging as we continue to work on developing realistic visions for long-term survey and monitoring programs.

If any of you would like us to send you some examples of identified bees from your refuge, please let us know as soon as possible since we will otherwise soon be distributing these specimens to museum or other collections.

Again, thank you for your participation and please do not hesitate to e-mail us with any questions or comments you may have (sdroege@usgs.gov, leoshapiro99@gmail.com).