Fuel reduction treatments and their ecological impacts on native bees

As a result of five decades of strict wildfire suppression policies, forests across the U.S. were left severely overgrown. Not only were forests less healthy, but excess fuel also resulted in catastrophic wildfires. More recently, the Forest Service has altered their fire suppression policies in an effort to return forests to a healthier state. In the Uinta Mountains, the Forest Service is in the midst of a multi-year project which employs thinning (among other techniques) to allow more space for the remaining trees to grow and removes potential fuel for fires. After the trees are cut, they are placed in piles which will later be burned when proper conditions arise. We established a total of 16 sites: four are sites which currently have slash piles, four are sites with slash piles that have previously been burned, and the remaining eight are paired control sites. At each site we set up five nest blocks, each with nesting tubes of six different diameters for a total of 60 nesting opportunities. The nest blocks were left out from July to September and once collected, will be x-rayed to quantify occupancy as well as categorize occupants as bees or wasps. To account for species that are not cavity-nesting, we have also been hand netting and pan trapping at each site. This will not only give us a sample of what species are present but will also allow us to see what differences in diversity and abundance might arise between treated and control sites.