Written by Lauren Gramberg, OSU Masters Student

This summer, a new pollinator project hit the ground running in the Steens Mountain region, led by Dr. Jim Rivers and Dr. Jonathan Dinkins of Oregon State University. The project is funded by USFW; masters student, Lauren Gramberg and her crew are currently conducting research in the south Steens region.

This project assesses how wildfire and invasive annual grasses – two contemporary threats to the sagebrush biome – influence native bees, a keystone group that is declining globally. Native bees are critically important in the maintenance of terrestrial plant and animal communities, yet our understanding of how threats influence this group, and the pollination services they provide, remains largely unstudied within the sagebrush biome. Specifically, within the Steens Mountain region, little research has been conducted to quantify what species of native bees occupy the area. With the Steens being home to many rare flowering plants, we are excited to see what communities support the pollination of these important forbs!

This is the first study designed to explicitly address how these two threats alter bee communities in the Steens Mountains, and it will provide foundational information about the consequences of ongoing changes in the extent of invasive annual grasses and contemporary fire regimes. This work will provide important information not only for Harney County, but for the broader sagebrush pollinator community as well. We are excited to help put Eastern Oregon on the map and to continue expressing the importance of pollinators and their role in keeping the sagebrush ecosystem alive.

We want to thank Friends of Malheur for helping to update the community on our research, and for the invaluable support that citizen scientists provide for projects just like these. If you have any questions about this project or the research being conducted, feel free to reach out to Lauren ([email protected]).