[Pollinator] Appalachian Bumble Bee Status Megatransect - Volunteers Counters Needed

[Droege, Sam]

All:

I am passing along information from a project that Paul Super and Eric
Rayfield created to look at the conservation status of Bumble Bees along a*
400 mile transect *down the Blue Ridge in Appalachian Mountains.  This
transect is completely within National Parks and is *protected from
Neonicotinoids* and miles from other agricultural areas or pesticides.  As
such it is a unique and important baseline for comparisons to rest of the
Eastern landscape which is chronically exposed to potential agricultural
impacts.

They are seeking *volunteers *to collect bumble bees along the Blue Ridge
Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains, and, hopefully, Shenandoah this July.
Several species of bumble bee have been experiencing drastic population
declines in recent years with evidence for both disease and agricultural
chemicals impacting those declines.  We hope this project will locate
populations of these declining species holding out in some of the most
remote portions of the eastern US.

They have a website set up to help coordinate signing out sections of the
Megatransect to volunteers to maximize coverage:
http://www.handsontheland.org/environmental-monitoring/bumble-bee-megatransect.html

<http://www.handsontheland.org/environmental-monitoring/bumble-bee-megatransect.html>

The website also has background information, protocols, images and poetry
about bumble bees, and a place for volunteers to communicate issues with
me.  We hope to have a short video posted on the site to show the protocols
soon.  This is particularly timely after a presidential proclamation
emphasizing the importance of pollinators.  To become involved or for more
information, please contact* Paul_Super at nps.gov <Paul_Super at nps.gov>,
828-926-6251.*

Do not reply to me on this....email Paul Super!!!!

sam


"I know of few studies to compare with natural history; with the
search for the most beautiful and curious productions of nature amid
her loveliest scenery, and in her freshest atmosphere. I have known
again and again working men who, in the midst of smoky cities, have
kept their bodies, their minds, and their hearts healthy and pure by
going out into the country at odd hours and making collections of
fossils, plants, insects, birds, or some other objects of natural history;
and I doubt not that such will be the case with some of my readers."

          - Charles Kingsley
-- 
*Bees are Not Optional*

*Apes sunt et non liberum*
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