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<b>
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<br>
Pollinators win big in NRCS Conservation Innovation Grants: The Xerces
Society receives $458,000; Pollinator Partnership receives $183,954; and
Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District receives $71,500.<br>
</b> <br>
<i>Xerces Society and multiple partners will work to understand and
protect habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects. Pollinator
Partnership and Gold Ridge RCD aim to develop habitat plans to support
pollinators.<br>
</i> <br>
Portland, OR – Pollinators are essential to our environment. The
ecological service they provide is necessary for the reproduction of
nearly 70 percent of the world’s flowering plants. This includes more
than two-thirds of the world’s crop species, whose fruits and seeds
together provide over 30 percent of the foods and beverages that we
consume. The United States alone grows more than one hundred crops that
either need or benefit from pollinators. The economic value of
insect-pollinated crops in the United States was estimated to be $18.9
billion in 2000. Native insects are responsible for pollinating at least
$3 billion worth of these crops. <br>
<br>
Native pollinators across the United States are in decline, especially in
heavily managed landscapes. Managed pollinators, including honey bees,
are in need of increased pollen diversity to help bolster their
resistance to disease, pesticides, and other stresses. The 2008 Farm Bill
explicitly establishes pollinators as a priority resource concern. <br>
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In response to this concern the Natural Resource Conservation Service has
awarded two grants to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
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<b>Xerces Society Grants<br>
</b>$255,312 to <i>Develop and Test Pollinator Habitat Job Sheets for Six
Regions of the U.S.<br>
</i>Providing additional forage and refuge through on-farm natural
habitat is widely recognized as important for enhancing pollinator
health, diversity and abundance. Creating these habitat enhancements
through the planting of adjacent pollinator meadows, bee pastures, or
flowering hedgerows, however is not simply a matter of selecting
regionally appropriate wildflowers. Rather these plantings need to be
tailored to the specific cropping systems and include plants of greatest
benefit to bees. For example, adjacent pollinator plantings need to be
screened for appropriate bloom time, ensuring that floral competition
does not exist with the primary crop. Similarly, these pollinator
plantings need to be composed of species that will not become weeds in
the primary crop, and they should not serve as alternate hosts of crop
pests and diseases. <br>
<br>
The Xerces Society will work with regional partners to standardize
pollinator seed mixes and habitat specifications for different
agricultural industries and landscapes. Partners include the California
Association of Conservation Districts, Oregon State University, the
University of Wisconsin Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and UW
Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, the Cape Cod
Cranberry Growers Association and Plymouth Massachusetts Soil and Water
Conservation District, and Straughn Farms of Waldo Florida. <br>
<br>
“These plantings provide a win-win scenario, creating new opportunities
for beneficial wildlife in agricultural settings,” said Mace Vaughan
Pollinator Program Director for the Xerces Society. “It will also
provide direct economic benefits to farmers resulting from increased crop
pollination and healthier honey bee colonies.”<br>
<br>
Also, critical to this project’s success are the USDA NRCS Plant Material
Centers (PMCs). Plant Material Centers play a vital role in helping the
NRCS complete its mission of natural resource conservation. Six of the
nation’s 27 NRCS PMCs will help plant pollinator habitat as part of this
project. <br><br>
$202,631 to <i>Promote Agricultural Sustainability through Conserving
Beneficial Insects: Restoring Pollination and Pest Control Services on
Farms in California's Central Valley, Phase II<br><br>
</i>In 2006, the Xerces Society, University of California at Berkeley,
the Audubon California Land Owner Stewardship Program, and the Center for
Land Based Learning initiated our Restoring Pollination Function on Farms
in California’s Central Valley project (with partial funding from a CA
CIG grant and an NRCS Fish and Wildlife grant). <br>
<br>
In Phase I of this project, we worked with six farms to plant buffers
with pollinator habitat. We monitored bee communities before and after
restoration at these sites and at twelve control sites. We presented
dozens of workshops across California and developed a variety of NRCS
publications that provide the technical information and specifications
needed to implement pollinator habitat using NRCS Conservation Practices.
We also developed a citizen science bee monitoring protocol for
California’s Central Valley. <br>
<br>
Capitalizing on these successes, the UC Berkeley and the Xerces Society
will expand this project to demonstrate how effectively these hedgerows
recruit natural enemies of crop pests. We will use this information
to develop guidelines for beneficial insect habitat and engage growers
and NRCS staff through workshops across the state. <br>
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“If we hope to conserve biological diversity we must work within
agricultural landscapes,” said Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of
the Xerces Society. “Both of these projects will provide vital
information that will allow us provide habitat for pollinators and other
beneficial insects which in turn will provide benefits for a broad
variety of birds, fish and other animals.” <br>
<br>
The NRCS also awarded grants to the Pollinator Partnership to work with
partners to develop pollinator project specifications for Montana, Ohio
and Arizona, as well as to the Gold Ridge Conservation District of
Occidental, California for a pilot project to enhance pollinator habitat
on six farms in California’s Sonoma County.<br>
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*************************<br>
Scott Hoffman Black<br>
Ecologist/Entomologist<br>
Executive Director<br>
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<br>
4828 SE Hawthorne <br>
Portland, OR 97215 <br>
Direct line (503) 449-3792<br>
sblack@xerces.org<br><br>
<i>The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that
protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their
habitat. <br>
</i> <br>
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, <br>
please visit
<a href="http://www.xerces.org/">www.xerces.org</a>.<br><br>
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