Education, Conservation and Monitoring
About Us
Our Mission is
Whether you live in a city or rural America, we each have an enormous impact on our native bees. We work with people to identify native bees and help to create a supportive environment for these bees to thrive.
Our history
We live and work on a small ranch in southeastern Wyoming, where we garden, raise livestock and create habitat for native bees.
We have years of experience working with invertebrates and bees. We are enthusiastic to share our knowledge and experience with you. Together we can learn the best methods to manage and conserve our native bees.
Our team
Lusha Tronstad
Invertebrate Ecologist, PhD, MS, BS
Lusha has >25 years of experience working with invertebrates and bees are one of her favorite insects!. She specializes in invertebrate taxonomy and ecology. Lusha has published 3 field guides, many educational materials and 50 peer-reviewed papers. She loves to analyze data using statistical techniques, brainstorm ideas and design studies. Lusha enjoys sharing knowledge and she has presented 177 educational and professional presentations. In her free time, she raises a flock of longwool sheep and creates clothing from their fleeces. Lusha is an avid outdoorswoman and loves to do most an activity as long as it is outside in nature.
Bryan Tronstad
Invertebrate Taxonomist, MLIS, BS
Bryan has >20 years of experience working with invertebrates and he specializes in bee identification and education. He can identify bees to genus just looking at them and he is working to create a resource for species identification in Wyoming! Bryan received his master's degree in collection management and he is skilled at organizing and managing bee collections. He loves to share his knowledge of bees with others through online, oral and written educational materials. He is an avid outdoorsman and horseman. One of his favorite activities is packing horses into wilderness areas.
Tresize Tronstad
Entomological Artist and Field Technician
Tresize has >10 years of experience working with bees, completing field surveys and creating entomological drawings. Tresize grew up helping Bryan and Lusha collect insects throughout Wyoming and beyond. She enjoys recording data and understands how important collecting detailed information is. She is a talented artist and loves to draw what she sees. She is skilled at identifying bees. Tresize excels at combining art and science to communicate results and needs. When not working or drawing, she loves to ride her horses, spend time with her chickens and relax with her rabbits.
Everett Tronstad
Our inspiration and Bee Lover
Our son and brother, Everett, is our inspiration. Everett loved native bees. He was out watching bees and catching them as soon as the sun came up on summer days. Everett and Lusha developed methods to photograph bees and release them again. He loved his animals, spending time in nature and living on the ranch. His favorite breakfast was tomatoes growing in our greenhouse (photo above). Everett and Bryan were riding horses through a meadow full of flowers, bees and butterflies on one of our trips into the wilderness. Everett exclaimed, "Look at all the beautiful butterflies and bees! I wish I brought my net." Everett's favorite person in the whole world was Tresize, his big sister. They were the best of friends and siblings. Everett passed away just shy of his 8th birthday. He wanted to studied bees when he grew up.