Native Pollinators

A YARD at a TIME Aggregate Pollinator Habitat The Plymouth County Conservation District proposes to create corridors of habitat incorporating different landowners and land uses, including farm field edges, back yards, utility easements and public spaces. The goal of the project is to develop a pollinator trail of 100 miles consisting of many small strips of plantings, building community interest with every planting. We intend to involve our farming community, residential gardens and garden clubs, schools, senior centers, business campuses, utility companies and neighbors. In the year long project we will create a manual and video guide so that our project can be duplicated by Conservation Districts all over the country.

This proposal will apply the plant lists and job sheets developed through the Xerces Society’s Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) that Plymouth County Conservation District participated in with other pollinator partners. In that project the District developed a local demonstration planting of a pollinator habitat, established along field edge of a cranberry bog, that would be self-sustaining, provide feed and cover for three seasons and could be incorporated into an overall working landscape. It was important to respect the farmers need to avoid pest plants and use land that would not interfere with other uses on the farm.

PCCD would gather different interested groups as diverse as they seem, to plant 100 miles of a pollinator trail in 2012 that can be replicated to 1,000 miles by 2022, …a yard at a time.



Native pollinators, most importantly wild bees, provide “free” pollination services and enhance grower productivity and profitability through increased yields and improvements in crop quality. Insect pollination is critical for the production of many important crops in the United States including cranberries, almonds, apples, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, pears, plums, squash, sunflowers, tomatoes, and watermelons.

When natural habitat is nearby, native bees can provide much of the pollination necessary. At the least, native bees can provide pollination back-up.

THE NATIVE POLLINATOR WILDFLOWER SEED MIX

This mix includes high quality native perennial wildflowers that are highly attractive to pollinators. $8 bag

The Xerces Society