Pollinators and Pollinator Habitat Protection 

eighty percent of the approximately 1,400 seed plants grown around the world require pollination by animals like the hummingbird

Eighty percent of the approximately 1,400 seed plants grown around the world require pollination by animals.  In the United States alone, pollination of agricultural crops is valued at approximately $10 billion annually.  Globally, these “pollination services” may be worth more than $3 trillion. Bees, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds, flies, beetles, wasps, mosquitoes, reptiles, bats, and other mammals serve as “pollinators.” Pollinators are key to the functioning of many terrestrial ecosystems because they enhance the reproduction of native plants that provide food and cover for numerous wildlife species, help stabilize the soil, and have the potential to improve water quality.  As a group, native pollinators are threatened worldwide by habitat loss, pesticides, disease, parasites, and the effects of invasive species both as direct competitors and as negative influences upon pollinator habitat.  These threats to the sustainability of native pollinators and their habitat have serious economic implications for humans and for native ecosystem diversity and stability.

Responding to native pollinators threats, one NRCS State Office, Montana, is enhancing pollinator habitat by working with landowners using the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to provide extra points for producers who plant sequentially-blooming species to establish an array of plants that flower throughout the entire growing season. These plants will not only provide a source of nectar for adult pollinators, but also provide a diversity of herbaceous material for immature pollinator life stages.  The Montana NRCS recommends that these herbaceous plantings include at least one grass adapted to the site and at least one forb or shrub from each of three flowering categories (i.e., early, mid, and late season).  Montana has identified both native and introduced options however, the cost share is significantly increased for the use of native species.  Details of these recommendations can be accessed through Montana Biology Technical Note 20.
Your contact is Doug Holy, National NRCS Invasive Species Specialist, at 202-720-9096.