Ohio State uses $1.3 million wildlife grant to expand conservation research

Lily Wittman
Wed, 05 Nov 2025 01:46:25 +0000
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The most notable project that will receive grant funds is the bee survey. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images via TNS

Ohio’s only bee survey will continue after Ohio State received its annual grant funds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has granted $1.3 million to be used to continue research at Ohio State, Mark Frantz, the grant analyst for the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, said.

“The grant itself is supporting the land-grant mission, which is to help facilitate research which benefits Ohio citizens,” Frantz said.

According to Frantz, the university is putting the money toward at least eight projects this year.

The largest and most notable project is the bee survey which began in 2020 to conserve the population in Ohio.

“Bees are important pollinators, so [that goes] to reason that we should be potentially concerned about our bees,” Karen Goodell, a professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at the university, said.

Frantz said he expects the funding to continue.

“It will continue to grow because the state seems to value what we are contributing,” Frantz said.?

With large projects like the bee survey, this grant money is especially important in conserving Ohio’s wildlife. Goodell mentioned the importance that one research project can bring.?

Through capturing and researching the bees, Goodell’s team of volunteers were able to collect data on other insects as well.

The traps meant for bees are also used to capture other insects, like butterflies and spiders, to support undergraduate thesis projects.

Goodell said that more than 500 different species of bees have been collected over the five-year project.?

“We changed our mission to really focus on a couple of different kinds of very rare bees,” Goodell said.