The Importance of Pollinator Conservation

Almost 80 percent of the world’s crop plants require pollination. Pollinators include bees, birds, butterflies, beetles, mosquitoes, and bats. The annual value of insect pollinated crops in the U.S. is estimated at $20 billion.  New language in the 2008 Farm Bill makes pollinators and their habitat a priority for every USDA land manager and conservationist.

Crop pollination in the U.S. is overwhelmingly provided by bees.  Recent research has shown that wild native bees, which number more than 4,000 species in North America, can contribute substantially to crop pollination on farms where their habitat needs are met. Buffer areas along roads, field borders, fence lines, and streams can provide high quality habitat to crop-pollinating native bees.

NRCS has joined more than 90 agencies and organizations in the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) that focuses on sharing pollinator conservation information and protecting pollinators.  Some resources that are available to assist you in addressing pollinators in your conservation activities include NRCS documents for pollinator conservation and enhancement  accessible through PLANTS, the Ecoregional Planting Guides from the Pollinator Partnership, NAPPC’s Pollinator Conservation Digital Library project, the Xerces Society and their (The following requires   Adobe Acrobat)  Farming for Bees publication, NRCS Ecological Sciences Division publications, and a soon to be released NRCS Technical Note entitled Using Farm Bill Programs for Pollinator Conservation.
Your contact is Mark Skinner, NRCS National Botanist, at 225-775-6280.