AP Quotes Drummond in Article on Maine Bee Population, Census Project
The Associated Press spoke with Frank Drummond, an entomology specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and a UMaine professor of insect ecology, for an article about a Maine bumblebee counting project. The Maine Bumble Bee Atlas project enlists citizen scientists to help determine bee range and abundance. Maine’s bumblebees appear to be affected by climate change, Drummond said, adding the numbers of spring days when bumblebees can visit blueberries and other plants has been reduced by half since the early 1990s because of increased rain. “At that critical time of blueberry pollination, we’ve been getting lots of wet springs,” Drummond said. ABC News, Portland Press Herald and Sun Journal carried the AP report. FOX Business and Tech Times also carried an AP report on the study.