Our overall objective is to examine the effect of shelterwood management and prescribed burning on pollinators and flower resources on the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest in central Montana. Research from the summers of 2001-2002 have begun to provide an extensive data base on flower resources and associated insect communities to help assess the impact of future prescribed burns on the lodgepole forest ecosystem. The study area, which is split between the north and south sides of the Tenderfoot Creek watershed in Lewis and Clark National Forest. The 23 sampling areas include 19 that fall within three logging treatments: unlogged (3), evenly spaced shelterwood (8), and grouped shelterwood (8). Two of the unlogged treatment areas and half of each shelterwood types are slated for prescribed burning prior to the summer of 2003. We have also sampled within four meadows adjacent to the treatment areas that harbor a high diversity of flowers and flower-visiting insects.

Our specific objectives in this ongoing project are to 1) Survey biological diversity of potential pollinators, including Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and sawflies), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Diptera (flies), and Coleoptera (beetles) before and after the prescribed burns (although these are large groups of insects, only a certain subset are potential pollinators); 2) Determine the types of pollen carried by flower visiting insects to assess their important as pollinators; 3) Survey flower abundance and diversity to determine the availability of floral resources; and 4) Collect seasonal samples of prey and pollen used by the trap-nesting wasp species.

Cooperators in this study include Dr. George Markin and Dr. Ward McCaughey (U.S. Forest Service).

¹ all flower photos taken by Kevin M. O'Neill in Lewis and Clark National Forest with a Nikon CoolPix 995.
² all pollen photos taken by Jessica E. Fultz, using a phase contrast microscope at 100x oil immersion objective and a Kodak DC290 Zoom digital camera in combination with Adobe Photoshop 5.5 software; pollen processed using safranin staining protocol; note that photos of pollen taken in a slightly different plane of focus make look different than the photos presented here; thanks to Dr. Donald Burgess (Department of Molecular Biology, Montana State University) for use of his microscope.