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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.
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