This story is part of the Prairies Climate Change Project, a joint initiative between CBC Edmonton and CBC Saskatchewan that focuses on weather and our changing climate. Roaming a stretch of land in Lamont County, members of the Métis Nation of Alberta's conservation and climate change department gather bumblebees in vials. The aim is to determine which species call the area home, and which plants they prefer for gathering pollen.
Once captured, the bumblebees are put on ice. After they're counted, they're released back onto the land. "We kind of just wander around until we see certain things in bloom, and then we might sit and wait a bit to see if anything lands there, or you might just come along to good activity on flowers," said Tiffani Harrison, conservation co-ordinator with Otipemisiwak Métis Government, the elected body which represents Métis people in Alberta.
The land being surveyed, about 70 kilometres east of Edmonton, is the MNA's Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA). The Otipemisiwak Métis Government recently received $240,000 through Environment and Climate Change Canada for the bumblebee survey project, under funding earmarked for monitoring and restoring at-risk species. In Canada, seven bumblebee species are at risk, and two of them are native to central Alberta: Bombus terricola — the yellow-banded bumblebee — and Bombus bohemicus , the gypsy cuckoo bumblebee.
An endangered gypsy cuckoo bumblebee was found at the Métis Nation of Albe.