Ecosystem and Vegetation Management

Laws and Related Information

• Presidential Memorandum, “Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators”
• Endangered Species Act federally listed pollinators

Policies and Guidance

• §1415 Administrative Provisions to Encourage Pollinator Habitat and Forage on Transportation Rights-of-Way
• National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators
• Council on Environmental Quality guidance, “Supporting the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators”
• Council on Environmental Quality, “Guidance for Federal Agencies on Sustainable Practices for Designed Landscapes and Supporting Pollinators on Federal Landscapes”
• National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration, 2015-2020

Pollinator Publications

• Roadside Best Management Practices that Benefit Pollinators: Handbook for Supporting Pollinators through Roadside Maintenance and Landscape Design – This document describes best management practices (BMPs) for design and maintenance practitioners. It includes summaries and examples of pollinator-friendly BMPs that transportation agencies can use to improve the quality of roadside habitat for pollinators. BMPs include activities such as adjusting roadside vegetation management techniques, enhancing and restoring native roadside vegetation, and incorporating native plants and pollinator habitat into roadside landscape design.
• Pollinators and Roadsides: Best Management Practices for Managers and Decision Makers – This document describes best management practices that transportation agencies can use to establish and improve roadside habitat for pollinators. Pollinator-friendly roadside management practices can reduce roadside operational costs, improve ecological outcomes, and benefit local and regional economies.
• Literature Review: Pollinator Habitat Enhancement and Best Management Practices in Highway Rights-of-Way – This document is a first step in FHWA's effort to provide best management practices for transportation agencies to develop pollinator programs in their jurisdictions and enhance these programs where they already exist.
• Pollinator-Friendly Practices Case Studies – FHWA developed case studies to highlight how different State DOTs are supporting pollinator-friendly practices, such as reduced herbicide use, reduced mowing, and increased native plantings. The case studies focus on practices in Indiana, Texas, and Washington.

Native Plants and Restoration Publications

• Western Federal Lands, “A Manager’s Guide to Roadside Revegetation Using Native Plants”
• Vegetation Management: An Ecoregional Approach
• FHWA, Roadside Use of Native Plants

• Surface Transportation Block Grant Program
• Guidance on 23 U.S.C. [sect]329 on the Control of Noxious Weeds and Aquatic Noxious Weeds and Establishment of Native Plant Species
• Transportation Alternatives Program

• University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Research on Pollinator-Friendly Best Management Practices
• Florida DOT, “Economic Impact and Ecosystem Services Provided by Ecologically Sustainable Roadside”
• Indiana DOT Hoosier Roadside Heritage Program
• Kansas DOT Wildflowers and Native Grasses
• Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Pollinator Protection Program Modification to Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan
• Maryland State Highway Administration Pollinators news release
• North Carolina Pollinator Habitats Program
• Minnesota Department of Transportation “Native Seed Mix Design for Roadsides” and “Living Snow Fence Partnership
• Ohio DOT Bee Pollinator Program
• Texas DOT “Wildflower Facts” and “Monarch Butterfly Rest Areas Coming to Texas Highways”
• Vermont Agency of Transportation, “State Highway System Mowing BMPs”
• Virginia DOT Pollinator Habitat Program and “Protect Pollinator” license plates
• Washington State DOT “Pollinators and the Roadside” web page