Gorge valuable habitat for the Oregon Bee Project

In the flower fields of the Columbia Gorge, a blue-haired, spiny-looking cuckoo bee patrols, searching for other bees’ pollen-laden nests so that it can steal them for itself.

A bee recently rediscovered in Oregon by an Oregon Bee Atlas (OBA) volunteer lives only on volcanoes, where it reproduces on tiny balls of pollen it stuffs into tiny bubbles in volcanic rock found in lava fields.

In the unique and complicated mosaic of habitats that makes up the Columbia River Gorge, Frances Fischer leads a group of volunteers as they search out native plants and attempt to catch pollinators in the act, working to survey the area’s wildly numerous and diverse native bees.