[Pollinator] Maintaining pollinator habitat

Fri Apr 20 09:18:26 PDT 2018

Hi again Sabrina and everyone,

Site prep is definitely the most important step and as Nancy has explained,
solarization is the best option where you can do it (thanks for the idea of
asking lumber yards for their waste plastic, Nancy!!!) That will eliminate
most of the non-native grasses. But it really depends on the site and where
on the continent you are. A controlled burn is great in prairie areas, but
not advised in the US Southwest.

In terms of mowing, three times a year is indeed expensive in carbon, time
and money. You could cut it down to once a year, and there are different
timing options depending on where you are and what your priorities are.

And yes, as Claus wrote, sheep tend to like the same forbs as bees so
depending on when they're grazing, they could prevent plants from
flowering.They do use them in the UK for winter and early spring grazing in
solar panels and that seems to combine well with providing habitat for
pollinators as they are removed in time to allow forbs to flower (see
attached study). The Xerces book Claus referenced is an excellent resource
and covers the options that are available depending on your site conditions.

All the best,

Kathleen Law
Outreach Program Manager
Pollinator Partnership

1139 College St.
Toronto, ON  M6H 1B5
c: 416-838-6373

Head Office
423 Washington Street, 5th Floor
San Francisco CA 94111
t: 415-362-1137
w: pollinator.org

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<http://pollinator.org/canada.htm>
<http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm>

On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 11:16 AM, Holmes, Nancy <nancy.holmes at ubc.ca> wrote:

> Hi Sabrina: If you’re like me and don’t like the idea of using herbicides
> (mostly just afraid of worsening my already fraught relationship with the
> earth)  I think there are other options, but they’re slow.  I’ve had
> permaculture guys suggest grazers too but in the end I just couldn’t figure
> out how to do that properly.  Getting a great native meadow-building book
> or guide is helpful.  We have been experimenting on various methods for
> replacing invasive grasses and other species over the past two years on our
> Pollinator Pasture site http://borderfreebees.com/
> kelowna-public-art-pollinator-pasture/.  We have been most successful
> with plastic solarisation methods that kill the invasive grasses and
> species, then we  seed over.  We get donated plastic from lumber yards—that
> big lumber wrap.  We’d done about half an acre at a time  (and we donate
> the plastic to others to use as solarisation sheets to try to keep stuff
> out of the landfill!)   The solarisation does a great job of killing off
> the invasive grasses (we left the plastic on for spring and summer one
> season- ok- and a whole year – better!) but pesky bindweed seems pretty
> unkillable!  But I think we’re making the conversion slowly though I am
> trying to not expect perfection!
>
>
>
> Best of luck,
>
>
>
> Nancy Holmes
>
>
>
> *From:* Pollinator [mailto:pollinator-bounces+nancy.holmes=ubc.ca at lists.
> sonic.net] *On Behalf Of *Richard Johnstone
> *Sent:* April-19-18 11:53 AM
> *To:* Kathleen Law <kl at pollinator.org>
> *Cc:* pollinator at nappc.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Pollinator] Maintaining pollinator habitat
>
>
>
> You should use selective herbicides to target the non-native grasses first
> to allow your forbs to grow. With the right herbicides there is no need to
> mow or use sheep. If you use sheep without killing the non-native grasses,
> they will most likely eat the native grasses and forbs first, and leave the
> non-native grasses alone to dominate the site.
>
> Rick Johnstone
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 2:24 PM, Kathleen Law <kl at pollinator.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Sabrina,
>
> I have no direct experience but here's a list of studies on the topic to
> get you started:
>
>
> Bai, Y. G., Z. Abouguendia, and R. E. Redmann. 2001. Relationship between
> plant species diversity and grassland condition. Journal of Range
> Management 54:177–183.
>
> Black, S. H., N. Hodges, M. Vaughan, and M. Shepherd. 2007. Pollinators in
> natural areas: a primer on habitat management. Lloydia (Cincinnati):8.
>
> Carvell, C. 2002. Habitat use and conservation of bumblebees (Bombus spp.)
> under different grassland management regimes. Biological Conservation
> 103:33–49.
>
> Dover, J. W., S. Spencer, S. Collins, I. Hadjigeorgiou, and A. Rescia.
> 2011. Grassland butterflies and low intensity farming in Europe. Journal of
> Insect Conservation 15:129–137.
>
> Elwell, S. L., T. Griswold, and E. Elle. 2016. Habitat type plays a
> greater role than livestock grazing in structuring shrubsteppe
> plant–pollinator communities. Journal of Insect Conservation.
>
> Farruggia, A., B. Dumont, A. Scohier, T. Leroy, P. Pradel, and J. P.
> Garel. 2012. An alternative rotational stocking management designed to
> favour butterflies in permanent grasslands. Grass and Forage Science
> 67:136–149.
>
> Fischer, S. J., E. H. Williams, L. P. Brower, and P. A. Palmiotto. 2015.
> Enhancing Monarch Butterfly Reproduction by Mowing Fields of Common
> Milkweed. The American Midland Naturalist 173:229–240.
>
> Hoffman, S., M. Shepherd, and M. Vaughan. 2011. Range Management for
> Pollinators. Society for Range Management 33:9–13.
>
> Hudewenz, A., A. M. Klein, C. Scherber, L. Stanke, T. Tscharntke, A.
> Vogel, A. Weigelt, W. W. Weisser, and A. Ebeling. 2012. Herbivore and
> pollinator responses to grassland management intensity along experimental
> changes in plant species richness. Biological Conservation 150:42–52.
>
> Kruess, A., and T. Tscharntke. 2002. Contrasting responses of plant and
> insect diversity to variation in grazing intensity. Biological Conservation
> 106:293–302.
>
> Kruess, A., and T. Tscharntke. 2014. Grazing intensity and the diversity
> of grasshoppers, butterflies and trap-nest bees and wasps. Conservation
> Biology 16:1570–1580.
>
> Machmuller, M. B., M. G. Kramer, T. K. Cyle, N. Hill, D. Hancock, and A.
> Thompson. 2015. Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic
> matter. Nature Communications 6:6995.
>
> MacPhail, V., and J. Kyle. 2012. Rotational Grazing in Extensive Pastures.
> Guelph.
>
> McGraw, R. L., F. W. Shockley, J. F. Thompson, and C. A. Roberts. (n.d.).
> Evaluation of native legume species for forage yield, quality and seed
> production. Native Plants:152–160.
>
> Morandin, L. A., M. L. Winston, V. A. Abbott, and M. T. Franklin. 2007.
> Can pastureland increase wild bee abundance in agriculturally intense
> areas? Basic and Applied Ecology 8:117–124.
>
> Sjödin, N. E., J. Bengtsson, B. Ekbom, N. E. Sj, J. Bengtsson, and B.
> Ekbom. 2015. The influence of grazing intensity and landscape on the
> diversity and abundance of composition insects 45:763–772.
>
> Sjödin, N. E., J. Bengtsson, and B. Ekbom. 2008. The influence of grazing
> intensity and landscape composition on the diversity and abundance of
> flower-visiting insects. Journal of Applied Ecology 45:763–772.
>
> Technical, B., N. No, and D. May. 2011. Attachment to Biology Technical
> Note No. KS-37 Dated May 31, 2011:1–23.
>
> Vulliamy, B., S. G. Potts, and P. G. Willmer. 2006. The effects of cattle
> grazing on plant-pollinator communities in a fragmented Mediterranean
> landscape. Oikos 114:529–543.
>
>
>
> Enjoy!
>
>
> Kathleen Law
>
> Outreach Program Manager
>
> Pollinator Partnership
>
> 1139 College St.
>
> Toronto, ON  M6H 1B5
>
> c: 416-838-6373
>
> Head Office
>
> 423 Washington Street, 5th Floor
>
> San Francisco CA 94111
>
> t: 415-362-1137
>
> w: pollinator.org
>
> [image: Image removed by sender.]
> <https://www.facebook.com/ThePollinatorPartnership>[image: Image removed
> by sender.] <https://twitter.com/Pollinators>[image: Image removed by
> sender.] <https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PollinatorOrg>[image: Image
> removed by sender.] <https://www.youtube.com/user/PollinatorPartners>
> [image: Image removed by sender.] <http://pollinator.org/canada.htm>[image:
> Image removed by sender.]
> <http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 2:17 PM, Sabrina Malach <sabrinamalach at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone!
>
>
>
> I am in the process of creating a 20-acre bee sanctuary with native
> plants. Two years ago, we piloted the project and planted 4-acre. The first
> year we had a drought and little showed up and last year there was tons of
> rain and things were blooming.
>
>
>
> I was advised to mow 3 times a year to keep the non-native grasses that
> had been there for decades at bay.
>
>
>
> We hired someone to mow for us but it was expensive and carbon heavy. My
> friend has offered to let sheeps do the work and im wondering if anyone has
> utlitzed animals for ecological restoration. If so, please share your
> experience and lessons learned.
>
>
>
> Thank you,
>
>
> Sabrina
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> --
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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