Alex Wikstrom

Bee Habitable Do you have a Bumble Bee nest in a place that is inconvenient, such as in an attic space, shed, pump house, etc? Each nest is relocated on a bee sanctuary (currently my property) for observational research and data collection. Currently, I am preforming all the data collection and relocations. I am learning everyday, and continually advance my techniques. Eventually, when we hit our goal, each nest acquired will be used where needed, such as farms and gardens. But only near the area they came from, so to keep pests and disease down. Currently you can see my progress on this google maps. We want as many people as possible to not kill their bumble bee nests, so we offer it for free! We get our funding primarily through Donations and a tiny bit through product sales. The more funding we can get, the more we can expand our services. Right now I am in collaboration with a Professor from Skagit Valley College named Bob Gillespie. He is a great and humble guy that loves nature and donates much of his time to helping with conservation efforts. He continually guides me through this process of data collection. Also, I am in collaboration with Steve Gomes. He is a Master Melittologist who occasionally works with Oregon State University to help relocate bumble bee nests as well. So, he is one of my main mentors in this program. Further, there is a wonderful company named Rouge Detections that is dedicated to training dogs to sniff out Bumble Bee nests for research.  I am constantly networking with organizations and professors from around the country to get their input on ALL of my developing programs.