Iowa’s native bee populations decreasing, Iowa DNR looking for volunteers to track them

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - They’re fuzzy, they’re yellow, and they’re one of the fastest growing livestock in the United States.

And, yes, the federal government classifies honeybees as ‘livestock/food-producing animals.’

As of 2022, the U.S. National Agricultural Statistics Service reported a total of almost four million honeybee colonies across the nation - over one million more than in 2017.

And those numbers are rising across Iowa, too, largely in part to a growing interest from farmers to amateur gardeners.

Jean Wiedenheft with the Indian Creek Nature says its beekeeping program has been booming in recent years.

”We have about 50 to 75 students go through the class every year. So, I think it’s very popular. A lot of cities now are looking at ordinances that allow at bees in town.” said Wiedenheft, the Indian Creek Director of Land Stewardship.

But this rise in honeybees doesn’t mean all bees are doing better.

Some of Iowa’s native bee populations are dwindling - four of them are even considered endangered.

Iowa State Entomology Professor Matt O’Neal says “the three P’s” are likely the cause of this

“Bees suffer from pesticide exposure, pathogens, disease causing agents... and then, the last P, and probably, this is falling into opinion, but in my opinion, probably the most important P is poor forage.” said O’Neal.

Because of these concerning numbers, Iowa State University, the Iowa DNR, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation are asking Iowans to contribute to the Bumblebee Atlas, which tracks what kinds of bees reside in which areas of the state.

“The idea is to get even distributions of people looking in these grid cells so that we can say for the state ‘Hey, where and what bumblebees do we have?’ and ‘How does that compare to historical data and data from the surrounding states?’” said O’Neal.

From there, the D-N-R hopes to use this data to better inform conservation practices in the future, so that native bees have the same ability to thrive as honeybees.

For those interested in being a tracker for the Bumblebee Atlas, volunteers can sign up for the first online training event on April 13th at BumblebeeAtlas.org.