The Alaska Bee Atlas is a collaborative program to collect bees and associated habitat data across Alaska. The program primarily uses the support of federal and state biologists who are already in the field collecting data for other projects. To date the data have provided significant understanding of the biodiversity of bees in Alaska and have documented over a dozen new species to the state. The Alaska Bee Atlas is managed by the Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS) at the University of Alaska Anchorage. THe AK Bee Atlas was developed by ACCS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with input from the Alaska Pollinator Coordination Group.
The Alaska Bee Atlas recognizes that all pollinators are significant and lacking data, but the project is first focusing data collection on bees. While the diversity of bumble bees is reasonably known, the diversity and distribution of nonsocial, or solitary bees, in Alaska is very poorly known and account for over 75% of the bee diversity. Bee observations will allow us to identify regions, habitats, and species that are of conservation concern and more effectively target specific monitoring actions. We supply researchers and community scientists with kits to survey for bees across the state. Participants must register every spring and follow the instructions of the AK Bee Atlas Manual.