You can contribute to the Empire State Native Pollinator Survey to help scientists see which native pollinators are common and which may be declining.
Native pollinators play an important role in the pollination of flowering plants, including native plants, wildflowers, garden plants and cultivated crops. The survey is targeting native bees, flies, beetles and moths.
The Participant Handbook describes different ways you can participate. One of the ways is as a photographer. You don’t need a fancy camera, and you don’t even have to know what species is in your photograph.
There will also be a training for the survey from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 22 at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, 311 Curtis St., Jamestown. It will be held rain or shine, but the outdoor portion will be contingent on the weather. The training will cover basic pollinator biology, project survey methods and how to submit data to the project. You can sign up here.
Even if you won’t be attending the training, on the same page you can sign up to register as a participant in the project or to stay informed about the project.
By participating, you will allow researchers to gather much more information help them cover a much larger portion of the state.
For more information, contact Erin White at erin.white@dec.ny.gov.