Community Science Pollinator Counts

Everyone is welcome to be a community scientist. Community scientists can monitor bees and other pollinators to yield useful data that can help guide conservation of threatened species.

Pollinator Friendly Alliance leads regular community science programs during seasons where pollinator plants are in bloom (June-September) at two locations: 1) Pine Point Park in Stillwater, 2) The Acreage in Osceola.

People get up close and personal as a community scientist as they are required to spend much time in a small transect of habitat looking into the micro ecosystem of the prairie to identify species of pollinators, some are very tiny like the sweat bee and others like the bumble bee are vocal and large.

Pollinators are more than one might think and include beetles, butterflies, bees, wasps, moths and some flies.

Through our pollinator counts, it became evident that pollinators are more abundant when weather is warm and sunny which offers more open flowers and available nectar. The drought reduced the number of flowering plants - many plants flowered early, did not flower at all or went directly to seed.

See the results of community science studies here: