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Cornell University

Wild Bee Conservation Resources

Bee-friendly strip at Sogn Valley Farm
Assessing and Supporting Wild Bee Diversity

What Can You Do to Conserve Bees?

Conserving bees is complicated, with efforts happening through governmental, non-governmental, and voluntary partners. Given the importance of bees to ecosystems and human food security, bee conservation is spotlighted on national and international stages.

Protect and Enhance Wild Bee Habitats

Our research predicts areas in the eastern and central U.S. where conservation and land management practices can be most beneficial for wild bees.  The following fact sheets and guides can help promote a better understanding of wild bees, the invaluable services they provide, and their unique needs for help to thrive in places in and around homes, farms, golf courses, parks, and public lands.

In Gardens and Around Your Home

Unlike the familiar boxes that house honeybee colonies, wild bees require access to natural nesting sites in the ground, on plants, and in tunnels. The following links provide access to resources for restoring and protecting wild bee nesting habitat.

Attracting Native Pollinators (Xerces Society Book)

On the Farm

Wild bees contribute ecosystem services as pollinators essential for many types of agriculture.

Nurseries, Seed Producers, and Golf courses

Lawn and garden retailers and golf courses are essential partners in advancing best practices to preserve and protect wild bee habitats.

Offering Bee-Safe Plants: A Guide For Nurseries
Golf Courses
Parks and Public Lands

Use Caution With Pesticides

Wild bee habitats are frequently contaminated with weed and pest-killing substances like pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides used around homes and gardens, on farms, and in other open spaces. Best practices can prevent indirect harm to wild bees from these substances.

Cornell Pollinator Network

Use Caution When Introducing Non-native Bees

Honeybees are the source of almost all honey used in food and beverages but are not a native bee species in the United States.

Participate in Bee Monitoring

As described elsewhere in this site, we currently lack sufficient information on wild bees to understand the status of their populations, the cause of declines, and how best to conserve them. Fortunately, several groups are developing and promoting standardized protocols to monitor bees; standardized protocols provide the highest quality and most valuable information to scientists and managers.

Woodard et al. 2020 suggest that locations with the following attributes should be prioritized for monitoring:

  • Abundant pollinator-dependent agricultural crops
  • Sensitive or unique systems or species that generate high conservation concern
  • Rapidly changing conditions and/or bee communities
  • Hotspots for bee diversity (e.g., deserts of the Southwest, southern California)
  • Long-term research or monitoring sites with data that can act as baselines in a changing environment
  • Data-deficient areas

If you are unable to participate in official monitoring programs, you can still contribute bee observations to projects like iNaturalist.  Your observations will be most useful if you include details about species, location, date, search time/effort, and type of survey (e.g., visual observation, netting, or pan trapping.

Be an Advocate for Wild Bee Conservation

Efforts to reverse declines in wild bee populations extend beyond our garden or farm and require engagement and investment from researchers, educators, community leaders, and policymakers. The Wild Bee Richness Prediction Tool was designed to support efforts like those described below to advocate for wild bee conservation in communities and beyond.

Community and Campus Efforts

Conservationists, educators, and consumers can mobilize efforts in their municipality, neighborhood, or on their college campus

State and Federal Agencies

The Cornell Bee Richness Prediction Tool is designed to support the collaborative efforts of thousands of natural resource managers, researchers, conservationists, and policymakers in developing conservation and monitoring plans.

Oregon State University – Extension Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
U.S.Fish & Wildlife Service
  • Pollinators
    • Center for pollinator conservation
    • All initiatives related to pollinators

Additional Resources

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Pollinator Partnership

 

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