UMASS bumblebee researcher Dr. Robert Gegear is passionate about teaching strategies to support threatened bumblebees.  With the Beecology smartphone app he developed, Rob's team and citizen scientists digitally collect data on native pollinator species.  The data is critical to regenerating habitat designed for threatened bees.  Handouts:  List of native plants for threatened bumblebee and butterfly species;  Colored bumblebee ID sheet to help identify Massachusetts bumblebees;.

If you are interested in the expansion of healthy gardens for pollinators, you must become aware of the effects that pesticides have on them.  

Here are just a few great references.

Web links for learning about monarch butterflies.

Here's a bee identification card created by Dr. Robert Gegear, UMASS-Dartmouth, to help you learn some of the species in our area.  

The XERCES Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.

Check out this folder containing a few of their excellent handouts.  And find extensive information, plus their useful books on their website www.xerces.org.

With all the large solar fields being installed to supply renewable energy to communities, businesses, and the electric grid - wouldn't it make a lot of sense to plant pollinator habitat beneath and beside these arrays of panels?

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A lot of the best research and progress is happening in Minnesota.