Declining honeybee populations have increased the importance of other bees that help pollinate fruits and flowers. Vermont is home to roughly 20 species of bumblebees and researchers say they’re also suffering from changes in land use and the introduction of foreign parasites. There’s a new effort underway to document the size and distribution of bumblebee species in Vermont to give us a better understanding of what’s threatening them and how to protect them.
We talk with the two people involved in the Vermont Bumblebee Survey, including the project’s leader, conservation biologist Kent McFarland with the Vermont Center For Ecostudies, and ecologist Leif Richardson.
If you have questions or observations about bumblebees, use the comments section below or send them to vermontedition@vpr.net.
Also, as the debate swirls around whether or not to raise interest rates on federal Stafford loans to college students, we talk with Middlebury College professor emeritus Travis Jacobs about the late Vermont Senator Robert T. Stafford and his efforts bring a college education within reach for millions of Americans.
And, we’ll open the Vermont Edition mailbag.