A survey of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in the Bear River Mountains in northern Utah

Bees provide critical pollination services to a diversity of flowering plants, facilitating the function of terrestrial ecosystems and global food production. Here, we present a checklist of bee species collected in conjunction with a larger systematic study in the Bear River Mountains of northern Utah, United States, over the course of three field seasons (2020 - 2022). The survey was conducted on public lands managed by the United States Forest Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We collected 8500 bee specimens using pan traps, hand netting, and trap nests, representing at least 199 bee species belonging to 33 genera and five families. The checklist produced in the survey is critical for land managers and other stakeholders in developing pollinator management and conservation strategies, especially on public lands.