Bees are in trouble, right? Bee populations are declining?

The fact is, we don't know for sure. Yes, we have strong evidence that some of the 4,000 bee species in North America are in trouble – sadly, the rusty patched bumble bee is an example of this. But to document a decline, you have to have a baseline for comparison, and for the vast majority of bees species, across the vast majority of North America, we simply don't have a good baseline.

But in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, we do. It's one of the few places in North America where the bees have been studied extensively in an almost pristine and untouched natural environment (thanks to the amazing work of Olivia Carril, Joe Wilson and a handful of other people). This is extremely powerful knowledge to have as we continue changing the world to meet our human needs. Primitive and protected lands like Grand Staircase-Escalante give us the ability to ask the right questions and make the right choices as we move forward.

But studying changes in bee populations – or any insect population – also requires time and patience. One thing we've learned from Olivia and Joe's work in Grand Staircase-Escalante is that many bee species can be readily abundant one year, nearly absent the next, and then abundant again in some following year. Which means if you only compare two points in time, you'll likely have a false sense of how well certain bees are faring in our modern world. You have to study bees consistently and regularly over many years to gain a true understanding of changes and stability in their communities.

Unfortunately, this sort of basic science and fieldwork has been woefully underfunded for years. What’s more, the funding that could be available for studying bee and other insect populations are getting much harder to come by.

We are at a critical time in our history, when understanding everything we can about pollinators and insects is essential to our shared future. Unfortunately, there is little or no financial being given to the experts who could help answer the questions we have. And the changes being made to places like the Grand Staircase-Escalante are proceeding with such reckless abandon that we may very well be losing species and ecological connections before we even know they exist.

This is why we're making a film about the Bees of Grand Staircase-Escalante. To raise awareness about these bees, the need to fund basic fieldwork, and to promote action to protect these wild, pristine places.