Pollinator Stewardship and the Green Industry

Trystan Bordeau, UT Extension Intern

Amy Fulcher, UT Associate Professor and Extension Specialist – Nursery Production

Laura Russo, UT Assistant Professor – Entomology

The Green Industry benefits in many ways from a healthy pollinator community. For example, plants bearing fruit, such as blueberries, are often preferred by garden center customers. Recognizing the many types of pollinators and identifying practical ways to support them is good for pollinators, good for your clients, and good for your business!

Pollination is an ecosystem service that allows plants to produce seeds and fruit and is essential for plant reproduction. Pollinators support urban landscapes by fostering fruit production, which in turn helps wildlife thrive (Figure 1). More than 200,000 animal species, including bees, butterflies, bats, and birds, can act as pollinators by moving pollen between flowers (Figure 2). Understanding and adopting pollinator-safe practices during nursery production and in managed landscapes and retail settings has wide-reaching implications for the Green Industry.

Figure 2: “Green sweat bee (Augochlorini spp.) visiting blunt mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) flowers.”

Photo credit: Laura Russo

Ecosystem Services

Definition: Services performed by organisms in the natural environment and functioning ecosystems that positively affect human health and well-being. The 4 main categories of service are producing (food and water), regulating (reducing/preventing flooding), supporting (nutrient cycles, generating oxygen for animals to breathe) and cultural (spiritual connections, recreation).

The potential to affect pollinators through landscape practices entered the public eye following highly publicized bee deaths that appeared connected to a pesticide application in an urban landscape. In response to the increase in public awareness that followed, consumers became more informed and engaged. As a result, businesses that adopt bee-friendly practices can help reach these Green Consumers: customers who weigh environmental impacts when making purchasing decisions. For proactive businesses, pollinator stewardship is “bee-smart” and business smart!

Did You Know?

The Advanced Tennessee Master Nursery Producer Program has modules on “Understanding Green Consumers”, “IPM”, and “Pollinator Protection”.

Specific Pollinator Support Practices for the Green Industry

The following list of tips include specific practices and strategies that garden center, nursery, and landscape businesses can incorporate into their daily tasks and share with their customers. These tips provide a range of options for promoting pollinators regardless of type of business, space, or resources.

Garden Centers:

• Provide customers with literature on the importance of pollinators

• Engage suppliers in conversations on the importance of pollinator-safe practices

• Create signage describing pollinator-friendly practices

• Keep plant species that tend to be pest-free available in inventory

• Offer weekly discounts on pollinator-friendly plants, such as bee balm (Monarda spp.) (Figure 3)

• Emphasize the importance of pollinators during gardening workshops and when hosting school groups

Figure 3: “Bee balm (Monarda spp.) is a popular choice for pollinators and can brighten up a perennial border or native plant garden.”

Photo credit: Laura Russo

Nurseries:

• Reduce, refine, or eliminate the use of pesticides where possible, especially when plants are in bloom, to help protect pollinators from accidental exposure

• Adopt Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to help protect beneficial insects, reduce risk to employees, and save money through more efficient and effective pesticide application

• Avoid “calendar spraying” and otherwise repeatedly spraying broad spectrum insecticides to the whole nursery. These practices harm not only pollinators, but also natural enemies, and are known to cause secondary pest outbreaks.

• Target pesticide applications to the relevant plant part

• Adopt laser-guided spray technology to sense the plant’s presence and its characteristics to reduce non-target application and drift, which can reduce the potential for accidental pollinator exposure (Figure 4).

Landscape Contractors:

• Communicate with clients and use products and plants that fit their preferences

• Offer a pollinator friendly maintenance package that involves scouting and control through mechanical and other pollinator friendly techniques

• Offer pollinator friendly design packages that combine attractive flowering species with ornamental ponds or natural streams to provide fresh water, pollen, and nectar

• When pest problems occur that must be treated with a pesticide: o Make applications when there is no wind o Cover nearby flowering plants with an opaque tarp to prevent accidental overspray or drift onto sources of pollen

• Supplement evergreen-dominant landscapes with flowering plants to increase floral resources

There are resources available to members of the Green Industry who want more information about protecting pollinators. The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/) offers publications on how farmers can provide pollinator habitat, and some plantings to conserve pollinators qualify for funding from the NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, known as EQIP. The University of Tennessee Extension Publication “Initiating Pollinator Stewardship in the Nursery, Landscape, and Garden Center (W 855)” and “Best Management Practices for Bee Health in the Horticultural Industry” published by the Horticulture Research Institute focus on bee safety and management https://www.hriresearch.org/ pollinator-research-resources. Both publications are reliable resources that can be utilized by landscapers, nursery owners, and retail employees to ensure that safe and sustainable bee management practices are followed.

These tips act as a great starting point for Green Industry businesses becoming more pollinator friendly. Understanding the importance of pollinators, making pesticide applications in a way that minimizes risk to bees and other pollinators, and by fostering pollinator friendly habitats, the Green Industry can help maintain healthy pollinator populations in their communities.

For more information, contact your county UT/TSU Extension Office. To find your county office click here: https://utextension.tennessee.edu.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge USDA NIFA SCRI Project 2015-51181-24253.

These tips are partially adapted from the Horticulture Research Institute’s “Grow Wise Bee Smart: Best Management Practices for Bee Health in the Horticulture Industry” pamphlet.