Host Bumble Bee Community Science

Are you an organization that manages or owns a large naturalized property?

Interested in learning more about the bumble bees on your property and engaging visitors?

If you said YES to all the above a Bumble Bee Community Science Program, and WPC’s “Train-the-Trainer” community science package might be a great fit for you!

Criteria for hosting a program:

Manage/own property where there is bumble bee habitat – exact size of habitat/number of sites on property can vary.
A location on the property to put a volunteer accessible survey equipment box
Organization capacity to a) Coordinate volunteers, b) Manage and advertise volunteer workshops/events, c) Develop survey protocols with assistance from WPC
Funding for equipment/supplies (approximately $1,300 CAD) and to pay for WPC’s contributions (see Prices section below). WPC can help provide grant options to fund programs if there is no internal funding available
Program location must be within a reasonable distance from Guelph, ON for WPC to provide in-person support (usually max 150km away from Guelph, ON). However, exceptions may be approved if additional funding is available for increased WPC staff time, travel, and, if needed, accommodations.

WPC’s Train-the-Trainer Community Science Package:

Train Staff and Volunteers

Train your staff on bumble bee community science through a Train-the-Trainer workshop
- WPC aims to run an annual Train-the-Trainer workshop within Southern Ontario to train multiple organizations on how to run a community science program. These workshops include bumble bee 101, identification, and hands-on bumble bee surveying and identification.
- Sign-up for our annual Train-the-Trainer workshop to come in 2025
- This workshop is a part of your WPC community science assistance package and is not an additional fee. However, if you are unable to start a program within a year of the workshop but have the intention to start one in the near future you may be able to attend based on event capacity, but donations to WPC are strongly encouraged.
Lead or assist with 1st volunteer workshop for the program (workshops are usually in late June-mid to late July)
Note – it is expected that you will be able to run your own workshops after the initial program year. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis.

General Assistance

Assist with setting up the program, for example help you make decisions on choosing sites, survey methods, and tips on recruiting volunteers
Verify all of your Bumble Bee Watch observations every year, so you don’t have to be a bumble bee expert! We can identify species and, when possible, caste (e.g., male, queen and worker).
- Please keep in mind that not all photos may be able to be identified to species and/or caste depending on the difficulty of the specimen and the quality of photos taken
Assist with advertising (e.g., share on our social media and enews)
Provide many resources, for example:
- WPC’s bumble bee community science manual
- Outreach material to help you get started including identification cards

An example of a region specific bumble bee identification card. Photo: Julia Millen

Assist with workshop
$600
(1 WPC staff within 100km of Guelph, ON*)
Lead workshop
$1000
(2 WPC staff within 100km of Guelph, ON*) (15-25 people)
Lead large workshop
$1500
(3 WPC staff within 100km of Guelph, ON*) (26-40 people)
Bumble Bee Watch ID Verifications
$0.5/ID
(Max amount of observations is usually around 600 (i.e., $300))
General assistance with program formation
$1000
(advice on protocols, sites, BBW verification, assistance with reporting etc..)
In total, all services may add up to a maximum of roughly $2,800

*Extra $50 for every ~50km added over 200km in total. Generally we only do in-person events with organizations a maximum 150km away from Guelph (300km mileage in total), ON but this can be flexible depending on whether all accommodation and transportation costs can be covered.

Rates can be discounted for certain groups, for example charities, BIPOC-led organizations, and small community-based organizations.

Get in touch:

Please fill out this form if you are interested in hosting a bumble bee community science program with assistance from WPC.

NOTE: We are not taking any requests for starting programs in 2024 but feel free to reach out to discuss opportunities for 2025.

Please keep in mind that our staff are only able to assist with a limited number of community science programs a year due to limited staff capacity and all community science programs roughly starting around the same time (late June-July). If you are interested in WPC’s assistance with starting a community science program it is best to get in touch, by the end of January at the latest. We will try to accommodate requests after January when possible.

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