The annual bee and plant monitoring work I do at Big Creek has generated one of the longest (22 years) and most valuable data sets on native pollinator declines. This past work also provides a baseline for now quantifying the effects of the 2020 fire, both for bees and for floral resources they use. I would like to visit the reserve during the usual time window for the annual survey, for about 8 days sometime between June 28 and July 10. I will evaluate the status of the areas where my monitoring transects were located in the past, as well as collect data on flowering plant and bee abundances. Last year, I began a new collaboration with colleagues at UC Riverside to monitor bee parasite and disease levels. I would like to continue this work, which now has the added benefit of letting us evaluate how fire affects disease burden in wild bee populations. This part of the project involves collecting 50-75 feral honey bees (Apis mellifera), and 50-75 flowers from plant species they visit and share with native bumble bees.

Approved