he Wild Bees of Montana is a 15-year project aimed at documenting the bee fauna of the state. It grew from the historical mission of the Montana Entomology Collection (1898) and the 2014 Bumble Bees of Montana and expanded to all wild bees in 2017 with encouragement from the funding officer of the bumble bee work. The project is daunting in scale, covering the fourth largest state by land mass and starting with the lowest inventory effort per area in the Lower 48. Only one institutional insect collection of significant size exists in an area the size of California. Since 2014, Montana’s known bee fauna has grown from ca. 250 species to over 600, with continued growth foreseen. A combination of historical specimens and new collections are the primary source of data. Trapping and hand collecting are the primary methods for new collections. All records require databased specimen-based vouchers, with a goal of 300,000 curated specimens. Nearly $2 million in funding has been received to date, involving a variety of Federal and State agencies. The project includes graduate student training, undergraduate involvement, tribal and one-room school outreach, volunteers, as well as media communications. Findings are conveyed via peer reviewed faunal treatments, taxonomic tools, and records of interest (e.g., distributional, floral associations, nesting data, biological relationships, habitat, natural history observations, etc.). The aspirational goal is an understanding of the composition and distribution of the fauna and an identification guide for the study of all bee species in the state.