Butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and bats are well-documented pollinators of native plants on the Pajarito Plateau. But smaller insects, particularly bees and some types of flies, are important agents of pollination for the 1,300 species of plants we know about in the Jemez Mountains. We really don’t know that much about our native pollinators: who they are, how many there are of each, what habitats they are thriving in and which they are absent from, and which plants they use. So, Citizen Science is critical in helping us gather that sort of information.
For a second year, PEEC and Bee City Los Alamos is organizing an iNaturalist project designed to create an inventory of pollinators in Los Alamos County. An iNaturalist project is an easy method of crowdsourcing and collecting observations of plants and animals in a specific area and organizing them into a visual database that allows access open to anyone who uses iNaturalist. The project will begin on April 1. Last year’s project garnered 3,000 observations of 600 species of plants and pollinators by 200 observers.
The focus of this year’s project is solely on pollinators. We hope to record bees, butterflies, moths, flies, and more that visit flowers throughout the growing season. It will also allow us to identify the plants that the pollinators are using.
An observation in iNaturalist mainly consists of a photo of the organism being observed–usually a phone photo and the attached GPS coordinates. You can identify the organism, let iNaturalist take a guess on the ID, or another iNaturalist user will chime in with an ID.
If you already use iNaturalist, any of your observations from within Los Alamos will automatically be included in the project–no need to do anything special. If you are interested in participating but don’t know how to use iNaturalist, you will have to download the app on your phone and set up a free iNaturalist account.
If you want to check out the project, follow this link:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pollinators-of-los-alamos
If you need help getting started with iNaturalist, send me an email and we can arrange a 30-minute lesson at PEEC and I’ll teach you.
You can reach Craig Martin at bikeandhikenm@gmail.com if you need more information or help with iNaturalist. Thank you for helping Bee City Los Alamos and Pollinators everywhere!
