Pollinators by Sarah McCrimmon

75% of global food crops rely, in varying degrees, on pollination help from mammals and insects crops such as coffee, apple, almonds, avocados, and more rely heavily on pollination without pollinators, the variety of food people eat would decrease dramatically food that relies on pollination would become expensive and rare in the United States, pollination of crops is estimated to be worth 10 billion dollars every year around the world, pollination of crops is valued at over 3 trillion dollars

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO A DECLINE IN POLLINATORS: • habitat loss due to agriculture, mining, and human development

pollinators need vegetation and plants to live in and search for food

• pesticides including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides

some pesticides can stay in the environment and affect several generations of pollinators

insecticides can make it difficult for pollinators to navigate or forage

herbicides can kill plants that pollinators use to forage

• climate change

warming temperatures can cause plants to occur farther north and become out of sync with pollinators

• parasites and diseases

due to travel and commerce, transfer of parasites and diseases has increased

HIGHWAYS BETTERING THE ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT POLLINATOR PROTECTION ACT introduced in 2015 and is currently under consideration developed to decrease mowing and maintenance of 17 million acres of land decreases costs to maintain land while improving pollinators’ habitats

INTEGRATED VEGETATION MANAGEMENT a technique used to manage landscapes by fighting weeds and invasive species and decrease negative impacts on the environment these techniques also create environments sutiable for pollinators

planting of native vegetation provides habitat and areas to forage for pollinators

NEONICOTINOIDS the European Union has already banned almost all use of neonicotinoids outdoors in 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency banned 12 products that contain neonicotinoids there are still 47 products on the market that have neonicotinoid neonicotinoids can get into the water supply which then gets absorbed by plants and into the pollen that bees collect bees end up preferring neonicotinoids over their own food source bees experience impaired memory and movement, causes issues with their central nervous system, and can cause death

WHAT

CAN DO

pollinator friendly gardening: • plant a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes of flowers to attract different pollinators • choose plants that bloom at different times of the year • choose native plants • avoid pesticides • avoid modern hybrids • include larval host plants • provide resting and nesting areas like a dead tree limb or grass cuttings