Join One Tam as we embark on a new phase of the Tamalpais Bee Lab and become a community scientist!
When: Friday, April 5, 2024, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Where: Old Mine Trail, Mount Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley
The Tamalpais Bee Lab (TBL) is our effort to learn about local wild bees in Marin County, and we started with inventorying which species were present in the county's public lands. We're now focusing on better understanding local bee communities, gathering information to inform future targeted monitoring studies, and contributing local data to broader efforts seeking to study and protect native bees. To achieve these goals, this year we are taking part in the California Bumble Bee Atlas and nationwide Ground Nesting Bee surveys. Volunteers can participate! Learn more about each effort below:
The California Bumble Bee Atlas (CABBA) is a collaborative community science effort, coordinated by the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to track and conserve California’s native bumble bee species and contribute to the global understanding of bumble bee distributions.
Ground Nesting Bee surveys (GNBee) is a recent community science effort launched by the Danforth Lab at Cornell University to better understand and protect nests of ground-nesting bees. Approximately 75% of all native bee species nest in the ground and yet we still know relatively little about their requirements and preferences for nesting habitat. By participating in this project, community scientists can help fill critical knowledge gaps on where and when bees nest so researchers and land managers can better work to protect and promote them in our public lands.
Volunteers participate in these efforts by attending a regularly scheduled TBL event and conducting surveys at predetermined sites with One Tam staff and other volunteers. You must register in advance here >>
Please note that while you can register for this program on multiple dates, locations will vary, so please note where each date is taking place. Registrants will receive more information closer to the event. Each survey has a different protocol that is determined by the study design, but in general each survey involves:
1. Visiting a site designated by One Tam agency partners as an area of interest.
2. Searching for bees or their nest sites.
3. Documenting the bees and/or nest sites with high quality photographs.
4. Uploading the photographs and metadata to a portal for identification by experts.
If you would like to know the details of the CABBA and GNBee surveys, you can find more information on their websites:
• https://www.cabumblebeeatlas.org
• https://www.gnbee.org
