VOLUNTEERS HELP BUMBLEBEE STUDIES

Good Buzz

For rare and endangered bumblebees, an atlas driven by “community scientists” may hold hope

BY KATHRYN JONES

Two years ago, a citizen scientist recorded the first known observation of an American bumblebee in Idaho.

They uploaded the photo to an online database, where the unusual find was verified by a bumblebee expert and entered into a catalog of thousands of bumblebee observations.

Since the project launched in 2018, more than a thousand community scientists have entered sightings into the Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas (pnwbumblebeeatlas. org), one of the most comprehensive data sets of field observations in North America, and a model for other atlas projects in Missouri, Nebraska and California. The Northwest has long been a hotspot for bumblebee diversity — of the 50 species of bumblebees in North America, the region is home to about half of those. But conservation experts say relatively little is known about individual species’ habitats and populations.

Citizen observations can provide scientists and policymakers with data to protect bumblebee species. For example, the American bumblebee was once the most commonly observed species in the United States, but it has struggled in recent decades and is now a potential candidate for an endangered listing.

But to protect the bees, scientists need more data.

“We know some about bumblebees in general, but when we think about individual species and how to help an individual species recover, we just don’t have that information,” says Rich Hatfield, senior conservation biologist and bumblebee conservation director at the Xerces Society, a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to the conservation of invertebrates.

To fill in information gaps, the “bee atlas” relies on community scientists. These community scientists can be found throughout Washington, Idaho and Oregon, sweeping long insect nets in figure-eight motions to catch bumblebees. Often, they place the bumblebees in small vials and put them in coolers of ice, which immobilizes them long enough to photograph. The bumblebees then warm back up and fly off. Experienced trackers can photograph bees without capturing them, but identification can be difficult without clear photos.

The decline in bumblebee populations, and pollinators in general, is due to a variety of factors including pesticide use, parasites and diseases, loss of habitat, and climate change, says Taylor Cotten, conservation assessment section manager at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The department — as well as state partners in Idaho and Oregon — teamed up with Xerces to start the database.

The first phase of the atlas ran from 2018 to 2020 and had over 21,000 total bumblebee observations of 25 different species. The project is now in its second phase, which will run through 2023. The second phase is focused more on gathering data on species of greatest conservation need, which are native species that are rare or declining in number, Hatfield says.

During the first phase, community scientists recorded over a thousand observations of species of greatest conservation need, but more data is needed for effective conservation.

“I think people are really excited and engaged in bumblebee conservation and looking for opportunities to get involved. I think we’ve been able to provide that and engage people in conservation science,” Hatfield says.

The most at-risk bees include Franklin’s bumblebee, the western bumblebee, Morrison’s bumblebee, and the Suckley cuckoo bumblebee.

Currently, only two species of bumblebees are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Franklin’s bumblebee, which has not been detected since 2006, is one of them. The western bumblebee is currently a candidate for an endangered listing in Washington.

The western bumblebee has been detected regularly throughout atlas surveys but has been notably absent in lower elevation agricultural areas and west of the Cascade Mountains, both areas it had been found historically, Hatfield says.

While the prime time for catching bumblebees is in the summer months, conservation work doesn’t have to stop when the charismatic insects stop flying.

Queen bumblebees spend half of their life cycle underground, hibernating in shallow holes. Hatfield says there is a significant gap in knowledge about where these queens overwinter, and it is important to learn more about their overwintering habitat.

Fall and winter are important times to create and preserve habitat for pollinators, says Dr. David James, associate professor of entomology at Washington State University. Certain gardening activities — like pruning — can harm the bees’ hibernation.

“Every autumn, I used to go out and cut everything down, most people do, I think. But that’s bad because you’re taking away all the nesting places for all the pollinators,” James says. Another important aspect to protecting habitat is to have a variety of plants that flower at different times, so pollinators have food sources from when they first emerge from hibernation in early spring until the fall.

Azalea and willow are good early-season plants, milkweeds are a good midseason plant, and asters are good late-flowering plants for fall, James says.

“With pollinators, you can make a difference in a very small space by providing nice nectaring resources in your yard or in your open spaces where you can,” Washington Fish and Wildlife’s Cotten says. n

A citizen-driven “bee atlas” is helping track the health of critters like this Sitka bumblee. RICH HATFIELD/THE XERCES SOCIETY PHOTO

LETTERS

Send comments to editor@inlander.com.

Kathryn Jones is a journalism student at

Washington State University’s Edward R.

Murrow College of Communication.

SPORTS

FROM LEFT: Gonzaga freshmen Hunter Sallis, Chet Holmgren, Nolan Hickman and Kaden Perry. ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS

FRESHMAN FOUNDATION

Gonzaga is finding the balance between one-and-done stars and player development

Last season saw the arrival on Gonzaga’s campus of the so-called “Tricky Trio” of freshmen Jalen Suggs, Julian Strawther and Dominick Harris. Those three represented the highest-rated recruiting class in Gonzaga program history, the sixth-ranked class in the country according to 247sports. It should come as little surprise, then, that as the program continues to improve, so too does the recruiting.

This season’s freshman class of Chet Holmgren, Hunter Sallis, Nolan Hickman and Kaden Perry ranked fourth overall nationally, knocking last season’s class from the program’s all-time top spot.

Holmgren, the top-ranked individual recruit in the country, was generating buzz as the potential top pick in the NBA Draft even before he suited up at Gonzaga. Since 2006, when the NBA required players to be at least one year removed from high school before they’re eligible for the draft, every single top-ranked recruit has been drafted with a top-10 pick — and of them, only Harrison Barnes spent more than one year in college.

Don’t bet on Holmgren sticking around for a second season, given what he’s delivered this year. Among the GU freshmen, Holmgren’s impact has been the most impressive.

What’s been equally impressive is the way the other freshmen have bought into their roles. Along with Holmgren, Sallis and Hickman were named to the 2021 McDonald’s All-American Game. While Holmgren claims the top spot as the highest-ranked recruit in program history, Sallis and Hickman aren’t far behind at third and

BY WILL MAUPIN

fifth respectively, and Perry isn’t much behind them at ninth.

By and large, freshmen at their level, freshmen who have a real shot to be one-and-done and off to the NBA, don’t come off the bench. It doesn’t matter if they go to programs like Kentucky, Duke or Kansas that are loaded, year in and year out, with elite talent. These kinds of freshmen find their way into the starting lineup wherever they choose to play.

Yet here they are, at Gonzaga, coming off the bench.

“I just think it’s the culture they’ve built up here,” says Alex Jensen, radio play-by-play announcer for the Saint Mary’s Gaels. “You have guys buying in. You have the older guys showing young guys; Drew Timme’s an All-American, and he came off the bench when he was a freshman. You just have a good culture and leadership structure in place where the younger guys are buying into what Mark Few is doing and the older guys are laying the foundation for younger guys of how they do things at Gonzaga.”

What Gonzaga has done over the past few seasons is wade into the world of the one-and-done player without giving up on that leadership structure that comes with having experienced upperclassmen. And that’s not just an outside observation, either.

“I even say that I wouldn’t go anywhere else, just because of the practices alone here. They’re remarkable. I love them,” Hickman said on a recent episode of the Mark Few Show. “Me and Andrew (Nembhard) go back and forth every single practice. Going against the upperclassmen, me being an underclassman, I learn so much from them.”

Hickman, a Seattle product averaging 6.6 points in 19.2 minutes per game this season, de-committed from Kentucky to come to Gonzaga. That Kentucky program’s entire mentality is to take elite talent and send them to the NBA, as quickly as possible. Instead, Hickman’s here, coming off the bench. As a result, he’ll likely be back next season.

“[Nembhard] knows that I’m the next up anyways. He’s just trying to feed me whatever I need to progress and be better,” Hickman says.

That sort of player development over time has always been Gonzaga’s modus operandi, but recently they’ve started doing it with blue-chip prospects instead of the diamond-in-the-rough types they had to dig for once upon a time. These players, like Hickman and Sallis, are good enough to go pro after just one season in Spokane. Though, so far, most haven’t. Zach Collins (who did come off the bench in his lone season) in 2017 and Jalen Suggs in 2021 are the only one-and-dones Gonzaga’s had so far, though Holmgren is almost certain to become the third.

Suggs and Holmgren were in different situations than most, though. Had it been allowed, those two would have been drafted into the NBA straight out of high school. The same can’t be said with certainty for the rest of Gonzaga’s recruits.

What can be said, though, is that these guys who are coming off the bench now, like Strawther a year ago, will be in the starting lineup in a year’s time should they choose to stick around, and they’ll be better off for it. Their draft stock will be better, and so will the Zags. n

Chet Holmgren is likely headed to the NBA after this season. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

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