Washington Native Bee Society
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Washington Native Bee Society
Monthly Meeting
January 25th, 2024 @ 7:00
Jim Davis: Flower Phenology at Heather Meadows, North Cascades
January 25th, 2024 at 7:00pm on Zoom
This presentation will discuss results from a five-year study of flower phenology and pollinator foraging at Heather Meadows. We observed 70 flowering plant species in seven transects at elevations ranging from 1,260 to 1,582 meters. In a typical year, there was continuity of floral resources within each transect and across the elevational gradient for the duration of the growing season. Black huckleberry, a critically important forage resource for post-diapause bumble bee queens, bloomed in tree islands early in the spring, even as 98% of the meadow was under snow. During the exceptionally early spring of 2015, flowering was two to eight weeks early for a majority of species, while the duration of flowering increased for a few species and decreased substantially for others. These findings preview the potential impacts of climate change on flowering plants and pollinators in mountain meadows of the Pacific Northwest.
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Jim Davis
Jim Davis is currently president of Shuksan Conservancy (a non-profit focused on public lands conservation and pollinator protection in the North Cascades). He received his MS and PhD degrees in entomology from the University of Missouri and University of California at Berkeley. He was a research assistant professor at the University of Missouri, where he conducted research on public health and environmental issues. From 2007 to 2012, He was Executive Director of the North Cascades Conservation Council. Jim has coordinated research at Baker Lake in the North Cascades to quantify forest road use and to identify knowledge and attitudes of visitors. He has also conducted studies in Skagit and Whatcom Counties assessing the knowledge and attitudes of local residents toward grizzly bear recovery. More recently, he has coordinated a citizen science project to identify flowering plants and pollinators in Heather Meadows near Mt. Baker.