Help Pollinators Help You

Reprinted from "Wildlife Habitat Basics"
Wildlife Habitat Management Institute
Natural Resources Conservation Service

For most Americans, pollen means allergies and bees mean stings--but to farmers, when one out of every three bites of food people take is made possible by a pollinator, bees and pollen mean much more. Pollinators play a tremendous economic role. The problem is, too many people see the pollination process as a free service from nature; most people don’t know the unprecedented threats facing wild and managed pollinators worldwide.

Managed honey bee colonies have shrunk by 25 percent since 1990, and there are fewer bee hives now in the United States than at any time in the past 50 years. For more than a decade, biologists have documented declines in populations of migratory pollinators including butterflies, bats, and birds. Habitat loss and excessive exposure to agrichemicals, as well as spread of diseases, parasitic mites, invasion of Africanized honey bees, and elimination of government subsidies for beekeepers are most often mentioned for what has been called an impending pollination crisis.

Pollinators are particularly important to fruit, vegetable, and nut growers with crops valued in the billions. California producers rent half a million bee hives a year for almond trees alone.

On your land, there are several things you can do to help pollinators.

Don't disturb wild areas. For instance, bumblebees nest in grass in old mouse nests and other bees nest in dead wood.

Plant pollinator friendly crops. Clovers, alfalfa, trefoils and other legumes enrich and protect the soil and are pollinator favorites.

Use conservation buffers. Current U.S. Department of Agriculture programs offer annual rental payments to plant grasses or trees on qualifying cropland. These contour strips, grassed waterways, hedgerows, filter strips, and windbreaks offer some of the best habitat to pollinators, and they can be within the crop field that needs their pollination service.

Let plants bloom. Try to time mowing, tilling, or grazing management decisions so that plants have the opportunity to bloom.

Time pesticide application. Your pesticide label lists bee toxicity and residual time.

For more information, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center or visit the NRCS Wildlife Habitat Management Institute’s Web site at www.whmi.nrcs.usda.gov or the NRCS Web site at www.nrcs.usda.gov.

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Last Modified: 12/20/2007