Written By Nate. On May 27. In Daily Life, Education, Environment, Food, Gardening, Nature, Research, Self-sufficiency, Sustainability, Sustainable living, Wildlife

By now, just about everyone has heard about the mysterious dilemma plaguing our world’s pollinators.  Honey bees are dieing off in vast numbers and no one is truly quite sure why they’re vanishing.  Some scientists have started hypothesizing what is behind the drastic decline in bee populations.  Some have speculated cell phone signals, a virulent disease and even pollution as a cause.  Now one group of researchers is looking into the bee dilemma with a unique, grassroots approach:  The Great Sunflower Project.

The project is led by Gretchen LeBuhn, an associate professor at San Francisco State University.  LeBuhn says she’s interested in broad areas of conservation and the bee is one of her most interesting subjects.  If you sign up to help LeBuhn’s research project, they will send you a packet of wild sunflower seeds.  Once you plant them and have sunflowers, the researchers will email you a particular weekend that you are supposed to head out into your garden and watch your sunflowers.  Twice per month you will plant yourself in your yard so you can record how many bees visit your sunflowers within 30 minutes.  Then you record the data and send it back to the researchers.  The goal is to find out where exactly bees are in trouble and what areas don’t seem to be impacted by the mysterious death.

I think the project is a great way for anyone who understands the impacts of bees on our life.  It’s said that one out of every three bites of food has been visited by a native pollinator and if they totally disappear, we’ll be in some major trouble.  Just think about the things you can learn by participating in this research.  If you have children it would make for a great summer project, something for them to focus on come away with a feeling that they’re helping to make a difference too!  If you want to sign up, visit the Great Sunflower Project website and join the research.  Hopefully together we can make a difference!