Citizen Scientists on the Prowl

I was in the field this past summer doing what I normally do on a regular basis with my neighborhood environmental stewardship crew. I was removing invasive, or non-native, plants. While most of the time we are pulling or burning, this time was special.

Joe Gannon, who sometimes joins our crew, started talking about seeing a rusty patched bumble bee. Gannon is not from our neighborhood, but I always like to engage new people. You never know whom you'll encounter.

To the hyper-curious dendrites of my brain that never quite grew up, Gannon's comment was akin to discovering the last dodo or carrier pigeon: A joyous yet troubling find.

Gannon is among a growing group of environmental and citizen scientists who devote their spare time to naturalizing their neighborhoods. In so doing, they are undertaking direct climate action. By cultivating native plants and pollinators, they are restoring biodiversity, recreating habitat and making areas that not only absorb and store carbon, but they also promote natural landscaping that doesn't need chemicals, mowing or watering to flourish.

Like so many amateur naturalists, Gannon became interested in the field as a result of a chance encounter. He was stuck in traffic about three years ago and spotted a monarch butterfly, a species the Fish & Wildlife Service is considering for endangered status. "I knew where it might be headed," he recalled, "then I didn't see it. Then I spotted a monarch again, although I don't know if it was the same butterfly. It was a call to action. I knew what I had to do."

A website user experience architect, Gannon, 69, completed some naturalist training at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, and began to volunteer for conservation and restoration projects. "I wanted to learn more," he said, so he also signed up to be a bumble bee monitor in local forest preserves.

Late in August last year during his initial training, he was walking through his neighborhood and saw bees on two flowers in his neighborhood. He took some pictures with his phone and uploaded them to iNaturalist, an app that connects naturalists across the globe. Citizen and professional scientists use it to share images of plants and animals, hoping to verify sightings of specific and rare species.

The bees, visiting hyssops, common aromatic herb flowers in the mint family, were confirmed by iNaturalist members to be rusty patched bumble bees, which are likely rarer than blue diamonds and once populated nearly 90% of Eastern North America.

Bombus Affinis, to use its Latin name, was "once an excellent pollinator of wildflowers, cranberries, and other important crops, including plum, apple, alfalfa and onion seed," according to the Xerces Society, a conservation group that specializes in invertebrates. In 2017, the society successfully petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the bee as an endangered species.

Not more than 24 hours after his first rare bee encounter, Gannon saw several more endangered bees. Although he was exuberant at his find, he was anguished. "What could I do?" he said. "This creature could become extinct and disappear from the face of the earth."

So he engaged in bee monitoring throughout his county, often educating others on the importance of biodiversity. He offered talks at his local library and contacted village officials, stressing the importance of pollinators in the web of life.

There are more than 3,000 species of native bees in North America, of which 45 species are bumble bees. "We have more information about bumble bees than many other native bee species because they are large, easier to find and generally easier to identify," said Elaine Evans, an entomologist and extension professor at University of Minnesota.

Considered essential pollinators, bumble bees fertilize a wide variety of wildflowers and crops. Evans said this is particularly important for crops such as tomatoes, peppers, cranberries and wildflowers that require bees to shake pollen from the flowers by vibrating their wings.

"There are several other bumble bees that are at greater risk of extinction than the rusty patched bumble bee," Evans noted, "but it is safe to say that the rusty patched bumble bee is critically endangered."

Evans said rusty patched bumble bee can be found around the Twin Cities, Wisconsin and Chicago, "although it's still hanging on in areas where there are a lot of people." Researchers in her field often receive valuable data from citizen scientists like Gannon because the iNaturalist app can tell them where the bees are being spotted.

"Volunteers can join in gathering data," Evans said, noting that a site called the Bumble Bee Atlas is helping scientists track the bees by region. For more information on the national recovery plan for the rusty patched bee, click here.

While you may not find an endangered species in your yard, you can still engage in citizen science, restoration or simpler measures like starting a pollinator garden. Doug Tallamy, whose books on restoration ecology are accessible working guides to saving our planet, started a group called Homegrown National Park, which seeks to create natural habitats in suburban yards and urban spaces. Through his books and organization, he has thousands of devotees who are creating green spaces that embrace pollinators and native North America plants that absorb climate-changing carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it away.

Gannon continues to press on with his education and advocacy. To document what he's seen, he is learning to use a digital camera he recently acquired. Like many fellow amateur naturalists, he advocates planting gardens that eschew pesticides and attract pollinators.

Gannon's excitement spread like a biological meme to a neighbor who had cultivated a wildflower garden, whom I happened to know. His neighbor also saw a rusty patched bumble bee, which a county environmental educator independently verified after she happened to spot the rare bees in her garden.

"Even if you don't garden or monitor wildlife," Gannon adds, "You can educate yourself. Walk around your neighborhood. Start connecting with nature and see how you can help."