Laramie Girl Scout Receives Gold Award for bee studies

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - While the decline of bee populations is well recorded, there is much about the cause and effects that is still being learned.

“Bees are what’s known as a keystone species in nearly every ecosystem on earth, and that means that uh without bees those ecosystems can’t exist. They’re a keystone species in that their presence in an ecosystem provides niches for other animals to fill,” said Kieran Burns, Gold Award recipient.

Burns researched declining bee populations for her Girl Scout Gold Award project. One of the main focuses of her study was solitary bees like mason and leafcutter bees.

For her project, she collected samples of bees with the help of a local beekeeper and entomologists from the University of Wyoming. A few times a week she would set up traps then record her findings.

At the end of her project, Burns submitted her samples to the ‘Bee Lab’ at the University of Wyoming. They are using her research and findings to continue studying local bee populations.

She then created a YouTube video on how to build a bee hotel to teach local Brownie Scouts about bees and how to protect them.

Burns also applied for and received a Gold Award Scholarship.

“I wanted to show people that they, they need to be taken care of too, they need our attention as well because without bees there’s no us, so we have to protect them now before it’s too late,” Burns said.

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