You can help count Florida’s pollinators this month, and it takes fifteen minutes
The Great Southeast Pollinator Census runs on 21 and 22 August. UF/IFAS wants all 67 counties taking part this year — Levy County included.
On 21 and 22 August, anyone in Florida can take part in a piece of real scientific data collection. It requires no expertise, no equipment and no money — just a flowering plant and a quarter of an hour.
The Great Southeast Pollinator Census asks participants to pick a blooming plant, watch it for 15 minutes, and record every pollinator that visits: bees, butterflies, beetles, whatever turns up. Counts are submitted through a QR code or web link on the official counting sheet.
You do not need to know what you are looking at
This is the part that puts people off, and it should not. The counting sheet works by broad categories rather than species, so no identification expertise is required. If you can tell a butterfly from a beetle, you can complete a count.
Who runs it
The census was established by the University of Georgia in 2019 and now covers six states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. UF/IFAS Extension leads Florida’s participation, and the Florida project is led by Jeremy Rhoden, urban horticulture agent at UF/IFAS Extension Marion County.
“The Great Southeast Pollinator Census is a fun way for anyone… to slow down, observe nature and help scientists learn more about the bees, butterflies and other pollinators that keep our ecosystems thriving,” Rhoden said.
The numbers, and the target
Florida’s participation has grown quickly:
| 2025 | |
|---|---|
| Counts submitted | 5,122 — nearly double 2024 |
| Counties taking part | 59 |
| New pollinator habitats planted | 183 |
The 2026 goal is all 67 Florida counties and 10,000 counts — roughly double last year again.
That target is the reason this is worth a mention locally. Eight counties did not take part last year, and getting to 67 depends on the smaller ones. A handful of counts from Levy County is a measurable contribution to a state total, which is not something you can often say about fifteen minutes in a garden.
Taking part
Counting sheets and full instructions are at gsepc.org. Jeremy Rhoden can be reached at Jeremy.k.rhoden@ufl.edu, and general information is available through UF/IFAS Extension.
Any flowering plant will do — a garden, a verge, a pot on a balcony. The census asks only that you watch one plant for the full fifteen minutes rather than wandering between several, because the method depends on a consistent observation window.