Native Pollinators On Farms

1. Focused Scientific Surveying of Bumble Bees was carried out by bumble bee expert Sheila Colla at sites known to have harboured Rusty-patched Bumble Bees in the past, including Pinery Provincial Park.  Although no Rusty-patched Bumble Bees were spotted during the course of the project, valuable data was compiled about bumble bee diversity and abundance in southern Ontario.
    
2. Awareness Campaign directed at farmers, naturalists, gardeners, the stewardship community, and the general public was launched to increase knowledge about native pollinators. During the period of this project, Farms at Work's Native Pollinator Program manager, Susan Chan, delivered over 100 presentations to over 4,000 Ontarians across the province. 

The project also set up the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee Facebook page to allow bee spotters to send in photographs of bees for identification.  This service no longer exists and has been transferred to a newly established bee spotter identification service for Ontario, How to Report Bumble Bee Sightings.

The Rusty-patched Bumble Bee Project supported the production of several important documents including:

• Landowners Guide to Conserving Native Pollinators in Ontario
• How to Identify the Bumble Bees of Ontario

This project was funded by the Government of Ontario through the Species at Risk Stewardship Fund (SARSF) and supported by Dr. Peter Kevan of Guelph University; Dominion & Grimm; and The Xerces Society.