In the Des Moines River Valley near Boone, Stephanie Shepherd visited a field covered in the lavender-pink blooms of monarda, also called wild bergamot or bee balm.
“It definitely earns that name because bees love it,” Shepherd said. “There were bumblebees everywhere. I think I had four species and over 30 individuals that I caught in 45 minutes. So, it was a good morning.”
Shepherd, a wildlife diversity biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), was collecting data for the Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas. The statewide community science project is now in its third year and coordinated by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and Iowa DNR.
Volunteers catch bumblebees with nets, take photos and release them unharmed during at least two 45-minute surveys from June through September. After the photos and habitat data are uploaded to an online portal, experts verify the volunteers’ observations.
“It's really valuable because our data from Iowa is contributing to this much larger data set across the entire country that helps scientists studying pollinators learn more about bumblebees, their distributions, what kind of habitats they're using, what kind of flowers they're foraging on and all that important information,” Shepherd said.
Scientists say the nearly 50 species of bumblebees native to North America are vital pollinators for ecosystems and agriculture, particularly vegetable crops. But 26% of the species face extinction risk varying from “vulnerable” to “critically endangered.”
The rusty-patched bumblebee was the first bee species to be federally listed as endangered in 2017. Iowa marks the western edge of the pollinator’s historic range.
Collecting data and tracking trends lays the groundwork for conservation, Shepherd said. In 2025, Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas participants and other community members recorded over 6,000 sightings of 13 species.
Upcoming events for hands-on training
Volunteers must complete online trainings and get a federal permit in areas with rusty-patched bumblebees before they conduct surveys.
“The trainings online are really important and really informative,” Shepherd said. “But it can still be kind of intimidating for people to actually go out with a net.”
That’s where hands-on field trainings can help, she said.
“They're just a couple hours long, and basically, it gives folks an opportunity to catch a bumblebee, learn how to transfer it into the container … and get more comfortable with that before they go out and do their surveys,” Shepherd said.
The Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas will host three field training events across the state this month:
- July 11 - Honey Creek State Park in Moravia
- July 19 - Pony Creek Nature Center in Pacific Junction
- July 25 - Nahant Marsh Education Center in Davenport
This will be the final year with volunteers conducting an “inventory style Atlas,” Shepherd said. The organizers plan to transition the project to long-term monitoring in 2027.
“Instead of going to any possible bumblebee habitat around the state, [volunteers] may be directed to go to the same place a couple times each year and to repeat that each year, so that we're starting to get an idea of relative abundance of different species and how they're doing across time,” Shepherd said.
As for concerns about getting stung, Shepherd said bumblebees are generally very docile. She’s been stung only twice in nearly a decade collecting field data, adding that she wasn’t paying attention both times it happened.
