[Pollinator] Bee course in MD

[Kimberly Winter]

Thought you and naturalists might be interested in these bee id and 
monitoring
workshops.
Thanks to Cliff Fairweather (Audubon Society) for forwarding:

USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
Invites you to participate in an interactive, online training session in
using:

Discoverlife Native Bee Identification Guides


The two initial session are on November 29, 2006 and repeated on December
4th, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) with lines opening at 1:30
p.m. for those who have not used WebEx before. There are no fees
associated with these sessions, but you will have to pay for the
long-distance conference call.

The Guides are available for use and viewing at:

http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Insecta/Hymenoptera/Apoidea/#Identification


Our purpose is to expose and train individuals in the art of identifying
Native Bees. Currently, while the interest in research and monitoring of
native bees is great, the process of correctly identifying any bees is
daunting. The root cause of this situation is a loss of taxonomists who
write keys and identify bees. Consequently, available keys are scattered,
largely out-of-date, and written primarily with a specialist in mind. At
present, only a handful of very overworked individuals can identify bees to
the species level and this needs to change prior to North AmericanâEUR(tm)s
embarking on the large scale research and monitoring efforts needed for the
conservation of this, the most important group of pollinators.

To remedy that situation we have created the aforementioned online guides
which we believe to be taxonomically up-to-date, faster to use, more
accurate, and easier than the older keys.

However, they do require a new way of thinking about the identification
process and their many features are generally unfamiliar to most. To help
in that process we are offering a set of online training sessions, first
announced here, as well as the previously announced times when our lab will
be open for visitors who wish to work with Sam Droege on identification
issues as well as a week-long course this coming April. These later dates
are listed again below.

For everyone, the first step should be to participate in the 2 free online
training sessions (the second session will be a repeat of the first) at
either of the times listed above. The details and registration is
available at:

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/brd/bee.cfm

Depending on interest we will regularly repeat these training sessions.

What follows is information about the open lab and workshops on Native Bee
Monitoring that we are also hosting.

Open Lab Dates for Those Interested in Learning to Identify Eastern North
American Bees to Species


There is a great need to inventory and monitor native bees throughout their
range. Our lab plans to sponsor the creation of monitoring programs and
baseline inventories for bees but prior to the start of those surveys we
feel that we need to build a capacity among other institutions and
individuals to take on the task of identifying the bees resulting from
those surveys. Consequently, we will open our lab on the dates listed
below to anyone interested in learning to identify bees.

Our priority will be to train those who will most likely go on to help with
such surveys, whether for pay or as part of another program. Learning to
identify bees requires a commitment to hours of microscope work and in no
way will attending our workshops and open labs alone will be sufficient to
becoming skilled at that art. Consequently, there is an expectation that
those interested in learning bee identification will have access to a
dissecting microscope at home or at their work. That said, novices and
volunteers are always welcome as we all have to start somewhere but may be
bumped from lab microscopes and computers depending on schedules.
Additionally, volunteers are needed to help with the processing, curation
and databasing of the native bees that are collected by the lab outside of
the dates listed below.

The open dates are as follows:

2006
December 7th

2007
January 18th
February 15th
March 15th
April 19th
May 17th
June 14th

Times will be 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

During the week of, April 16-20th, we will host a week long intensive
workshop on bee species identification. This workshop will be free with
participants expected to pay for their food and lodging using local
establishments.

Thank you.

Sam

Sam Droege SDroege at USGS.GOV
w 301-497-5840 h 301-390-7759 fax 301-497-5624
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705
Http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

To make a prairie it takes a clover

and one bee,--
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

- Emily Dickinson