Source: OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
THE B-TEAM: HELP FOR LAND MANAGERS WHO NEED TO INVENTORY BEE BIODIVERSITY AND IDENTIFY ASSOCIATED PLANT COMMUNITIES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030142
Grant No.
2023-67013-39913
Cumulative Award Amt.
$749,973.00
Proposal No.
2022-08511
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jun 1, 2023
Project End Date
May 31, 2026
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A1113]- Pollinator Health: Research and Application
Recipient Organization
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
CORVALLIS,OR 97331
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Land managers are increasingly tasked with creating inventories of bees and identifying and conserving the plants that they prefer. This work is currently not possible because the land managers lack the infrastructure, the human capital, and the statistical or biological understanding of the procedural subtleties that accompany bee surveys. But even where bees have been sufficiently sampled, the data is largely inaccessible to land managers. The information is often restricted to internal publications shared among taxonomists and less frequently with local land manager collaborators. Our project addresses these problems, as well as aligns with NIFA Pollinator Health: Research and Applications priorities by: (a) expanding an extension program "related to pollinators in agriculture and associated systems" to train volunteers to conduct high level surveys of wild bees and the plant hosts they these bees are most closely associated with (priority F), (b) evaluating the capacity of these Extension volunteers to implement standardized survey protocols on private and federal land and (c) working towards the "development of innovative tools and management practices that would likely be adopted by stakeholders to ensure healthy pollinators", namely tools to visualize wild bee and associated plant host data in order to inform management decisions (Priority C). The work builds on the findings of a previously funded USDA NIFA funded Research Coordination Network for a National Native Bee Monitoring Plan.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
20%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
13630851130100%
Goals / Objectives
Goal 1: Create the B-Team: a mobile volunteer team of certified Master Melittologists that canconduct intensive monitoring and surveys of bee biodiversity and bee host-plant associations.Goal 2: Inventory western lands for bee biodiversity and associated bee host plants.Goal 3: Develop a reporting tool for land managers to access records of bees collected on theirlands and visualize the bee-plant host associations.
Project Methods
-Expand an existing Extension program for bee survey in New Mexico.- Create new training modules for the Extension program to incorporate more standardized survey protocols, better plant photo vouchers, and genus-level bee identifications.- Plot survey with volunteers on BLM land and vineyards.- Create data visualization tools

Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:We recruited 149 new Master Melittologist wild bee surveyors at the Apprentice level from 10states (CA, ID, MA, MT, NM, NY, OK, OR, TX, WA). We launched a new Journey level program though the grantand have 30 participants enrolled. We have created a 28 member Advisory Committee representing commercial agriculture, forestry, beekeeping, state and federal agencies and volunteer users. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The data generated from the project has already shows applications and we have met with the NRCS PLANTS database team to discuss integration with their initiative, as well as with US Fish and Wildlife Service. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, prototype data visualization tool has been presented to the Oregon Soil and Water Conservation District annual meeting, at the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District annual meeting, at the Oregon Master Gardener Mini-College, to a regional Oregon NRCS meeting and to three Oregon beekeeper clubs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- Launch the Plant-Pollinator Interaction Tool. - Add an additional 75,000 bee plant interactions. - To recruit 50 more Apprentice Master Melittologists and 10 more Journey Master Melittologists - Have the B-Team protocol completed and to have trained 25 volunteers

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: Create the B-Team: a mobile volunteer team of certified Master Melittologists that can conduct intensive monitoring and surveys of bee biodiversity and bee host-plant associations. - We have already exceeded our original goal of training 100 new Apprenice level Master Melittologists, with 150 trained in the first year of the grant alone - We have begun building out the Apprentice-level B-Team training with filming for modules being planned for recording in New Mexico in May 2025 - We have completed our Journey level training and have 30 people enrolled with 4 people acredited. Goal 2: Inventory western lands for bee biodiversity and associated bee host plants. - These volunteers have generated approximately 42,000 bee-plant occurance records for Oregon,28,000 records for Washingon, 7,000 records in other Western regions since the grant began. We are close to exceeding the 100,000 minimum records outlined for all years of the grant in the first year. Goal 3: Develop a reporting tool for land managers to access records of bees collected on their lands and visualize the bee-plant host associations. - We have created a 28 member Advisory Committee representing commercial agriculture, forestry, beekeeping, state and federal agencies and volunteer users. The group has met three times in the first year, focusing on the data visualization tool. - We already have a functioning data visualization tool, which is in beta-testing - accessable at:https://imerss.github.io/imerss-bioinfo/indexBeasOBA.html

Publications