First, let me say how I am amazed by the incredible effort that so many of you put into the first year of Atlas. When all is said and done, I am certain we will have somewhere north of 18,000 new records, covering virtually every county in Oregon. People endured delayed supplies, label and data entry glitches and a steep learning curve and still shattered all expectations of what regular people can do with a net and a killing jar. I would be remiss in not mentioning a few exceptional individuals who made 2018 possible. First, thank you to the Advisory Committee members who have worked hard to help us work through all the glitches of 2018 (Jerry Paul, Michael O’Loughlin, Bonnie Shoffner, Missy Martin, Judi Maxwell, Pete and Gretchen Pederson, Nicole Sanchez, Tom Robertson, Julie Biddle,) our lead Taxonomist - the indefatigable Lincoln Best, the Oregon State Arthropod Collection and the mighty Chris Marshall, and our guest instructors Joe Engler, Sarah Gardiner, August Jackson and Sarah Johnson. Finally, there are two people who have been extraordinary in their commitment and efforts, namely Sarah Kincaid (who hatched this idea in the first place) and the amazing, inventive, many-miles-on-the-road and steady hand Rich Little. May we find some amazing new bees in 2019.
- Andony Melathopoulos, December 30, 2018.

1. MISSING LABELS - FINISHING THE DATABASE

Most of your collections now have labels. There are still a few outstanding labels and we will be working on those as soon as the undergraduate students return from holidays. If you still have data that has not been sent to us or require corrections, please make sure to have this to us by Sunday January 6th.

2. 2019 BASIC TRAINING CLASSES

We will be running the basic training that many of you took in 2018. If you want to take the course again as a refresher, please register by next week. After registrations are submitted, Jen will send a note letting you know what to bring to the class etc. In some cases, if the session is full, Jen will suggest an alternate location. The dates of the upcoming sessions are listed below the link for the registration.
https://www.oregonbeeproject.org/rsvp-form-2019-atlas-basic-training

Portland - January 13th, Concordia Community room at McMenamin's Kennedy School
Myrtle Point - January 15th, Myrtle Point Extension Facility
Corvallis - January 18th, Cordley 3058
North Willamette - January 18th, NWREC classroom
Columbia County - January 19th, Columbia Co. Extension Office
Grants Pass - January 26th, Extension Office
Central Point - February 1st, 9 am to 4 pm, Extension Auditorium
La Grande - February 1st. location TBA
Malheur - February 2nd, Extension Office, 10507 North McAlister Road, La Grande, OR 97850
Corvallis - February 11th, 9 am to 2 pm, Cordley 3058
Yamhill - February 19th, Yamhill Co. Public works auditorium
Portland - March 2nd, Building 4 at PCC Rock Creek campus
Klamath Falls - March 8th, location TBA
Mosier - TBD

3. GETTING READY FOR 2019

The Advisory Committee has been working hard pulling together our protocol for 2019. The protocol, which the Committee will present at the Oregon Bee Atlas Conference (Feb 16, 2018, OSU Covallis), will be finalized in late February. In the meantime, here is what 2019 will likely look like.

1. The minimal amount of activity for being in the Atlas will be reduced. We realize some people have full lives and we want to make sure you all can participate. There will now be a minimum of three collection events, which don’t all have to be in the same place.

2. We are looking into a less cumbersome way to upload your data and a system to make sure labels arrive in your hands within two weeks of uploading your data.

3. We will have a trained person come out with your group at least once per season to demonstrate collection procedures.

One thing that we can say for certain, is that our first collection event will be on willow plants in the spring. We will have equipment out to your groups in February and we do encourage having a group meeting in early March to distribute equipment and figure out when you plan to hold your first collection event. In the meantime, your group should keep their eyes out for large and accessible patches of willows.

How to locate patches of willows? Two strategies to try are:

1. Use Oregon Flora’s Atlas page.

Select ‘Salicaceae’ for Family and ‘Salix’ for Genus and you should get a map that looks like this. Zoom into the area where your group collects and use the map to find decent sized patches in your area.

2. Try doing the same thing on iNaturalist.
Type in ‘Willow’ and ‘Oregon’ and you should get a map like the one below.