Endangered Bumble Bee Found

This summer, a team of volunteers from the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation (JDCF) positively identified the rusty patched bumble bee in the prairie at one of JDCF's 7 public preserves. This is an exciting find as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed the rusty patched as an endangered species in January of 2017.

In August of 2018, JDCF hosted an informational workshop covering native bees in Jo Daviess County including bee identification. This led to a group of volunteer citizen scientists forming to conduct bee surveys at JDCF sites. They found one rusty patched that summer. Ea...