[Pollinator] Merkley, Alexander, Carper, Rounds Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Create Monarch and Pollinator Highways

Tue Nov 26 15:00:01 PST 2019

Hello all,

I'm writing to comment on the recent press release shared by Matthew
Shepherd of Xerces Society in this listserv about the “pollinator highway”
bill. This Senate bill states that it will "help revive monarch and
pollinator habitat at a time when the population of pollinators—critical to
American agriculture—has dangerously declined" by creating "pollinator
highways." The bill proposes to add pollinator-friendly plants to roads as
a solution to the pollinator decline that threatens our food supply and
ecosystems.

I want to point out several things.

First off, what is frustrating is that this program, and others like it,
completely misses the point, which is that we need to design
comprehensively. Design that is centered on car infrastructure is in large
part what has caused many of our environmental crises to begin with.
Centering such a design on roads is an ineffective approach that wastes
time and money when a better, much more comprehensive, design solution is
needed not only to support pollinators, but to confront the much larger
environmental issues before us. It enables roads to be a driver of a
design, rather than thinking of them as one aspect within a larger design
strategy. A result is the expansion of roads with plants, or decorated
sprawl. A better design approach--one that limits this kind of natural
infrastructure momentum from continuing--connects park to park,
strategically supports density, and brings players together to collaborate.
This can include land near roads (and, better yet, going over roads) to
connect fragmented landscapes, but it doesn’t make roads the driver of the
design. Anything short of large-scale systems change doesn’t get us where
we want to be.

Two, this bill is entirely derived from my work, while also
misunderstanding it. This is frustrating, but more importantly, it obscures
the valuable conversation I’ve been trying to create--a conversation that I
believe will benefit us all.

Twelve years ago, I created a global-scale ecological design project called
the Pollinator Pathway. It centers the need for comprehensive,
transformative design in the Anthropocene--the type of design that
challenges us to change our broken systems, to think differently, and work
together to create a better future. It has to do with flipping the
narrative of nature as “over there,” to looking at how our human systems
are designed and behave in conjunction with other nonhuman systems. Design
wise, it adds up to thinking comprehensively: ecologically connecting
national parks and other fragmented landscapes (and thereby connecting life
to life), designing for density in cities (in support of walkable cities
that produce less sprawl, which translates to more ecology outside cities,
and less climate change); creating ecologically rich landscapes to counter
the industrial agriculture that generates weak, homogeneous plant and
insect populations (monocultures and imported honey bees); and designing
for the symbiotic relationships between native plants and pollinators
(which supports biological abundance). By connecting land fragments, we
support the phenology, or timing, of life, and by designing for density in
cities we reduce a great driver of biodiversity loss: sprawl.

This work also brings a completely different perspective to thinking about
problems of extinction than typical conservation approaches. It frames it
as a design problem. Included in this design problem is an approach to
environmentalism that operates in professional silos and primarily tackles
discrete issues (singular threatened species or singular vulnerable areas)
instead of thinking holistically. This is in part a symptom of a historical
western viewpoint of nature, which conceptualizes humans as dominant and
separate from other life systems (and its inverse belief, that nature must
be saved—which is too big a topic to do more than touch on here, but
Charles Mann’s 1491
<https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302445/> or
Jedediah Purdy’s After Nature
<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/nature-has-lost-its-meaning/417918/>
are a helpful start). Essentially, all design that flows from such a
fragmented perspective, leads to fragmented design—and this bill is a good
example of it.

To launch my project, I made an initial design in Seattle as a proof of
concept for the larger thinking behind it. The project happened to be a
pathway for pollinators that utilizes unused median space within an urban
setting. It was designed to accomplish two things—to connect park to park
(in this case, a campus and a woods), and to support density (it took
advantage of underutilized urban space where no buildings could be built).
This civic design was a prototype for a larger, aspirational vision: to
connect the national parks and provide inspiration for designing for urban
density (something we especially struggle with in the US).

My project got a lot of attention across a wide spectrum—it seemingly
appealed to all fields—and the conservation community was smitten.
Unfortunately, people were excited about the literal physical manifestation
of this one example project, and they missed the “why” behind it or the
guiding philosophy about comprehensive, systemic, and lasting design.
Instead, what they saw in my project was a new type of pollinator garden,
or a way to spruce up roads, and they ignored the goals of connectivity and
density. They took that (incorrect) idea and ran with it, creating new bee
highways, roads, freeways, paths, parkways, etc. They also rarely attempted
to either collaborate with me or credit my work, even as they badly
interpreted it.

In addition, it was regularly mistaken for a honeybee project, which is
biologically backwards (one of the last things we need to do is expand
honeybee range outside of big-scale agriculture). This misunderstanding
would expand domesticated landscapes and exacerbate native pollinator loss,
which would diminish biological insurance. It also has real implications
for the Anthropocene—it gives an unexamined answer to one of its biggest
questions—what (or who) the future of nature is for.

This poor interpretation of my project not only doesn’t accomplish the
correct goals, it also has made it very difficult for me to talk about the
ideas I was trying to get at in the first place. The project's strength
isn’t in a binary conversation (are we killing or saving honeybees, killing
or saving native pollinators). It is about a more beautiful way to think
about all this: the history of the earth, how life shapes life, our place
in this story, and a way forward that shifts our thinking—humanity thinking
symbiotically at civilization scale, on long (epoch length) time. This is
not about creating roadside gardens on highways to support weak
agricultural systems. Nor is it about taking two parts—conservation and
roads—and bringing them together, frankenstein style. And it is also not
about just adding more plants to cities—it is about redesigning how our
cities work in conjunction to the landscapes they are situated in.

This current proposal is no different from the various bee highway projects
that came before it. It’s taking the friendly attitude, social cache, and
marketing of my work, and applying it to an idea that is the opposite of
what I’ve been trying to get across. It sounds good, but does nothing to
rethink our existing infrastructure or the systems that are creating the
problem of extinction—it in fact adds to them. While I do not doubt it is
well-intentioned in its goals, it is greenwashing of the highest order,
because it doesn’t respond to the root of the problem in its thinking,
communication, or execution.

This bill will divert resources and take the important ideas I've put forth
and warp them into something else that does us all a disservice. It misses
a tremendous opportunity to imagine and design better, and have a real
positive impact on the future—and it also contributes to a death of better
design. We will look back on this effort in the panoply of projects trying
to design for a better outcome for the world, and recognize it for what it
is—a failure of design thinking that diverted funding, momentum and public
engagement to decorating highways—while co-opting the project it was based
on that actually connects land and supports lasting design. We don’t have
time for this kind of poor sportsmanship. This is not just a misuse of my
time, it is a misuse of public trust.

I have two recommendations.

-One, I recommend you halt this bill, and bring in the person behind it to
rework it.

-Two, call that reworked bill what it is—a Pollinator Pathway, and seek to
support and build on the work I did.

The irony is that I made the Pollinator Pathway project for organizations
like yours. This project is based in a sincere, twelve year effort to
support good design—and it was made to be used.

-Sarah Bergmann

-- 
Sarah Bergmann
Creative Director
Pollinator Pathway
www.pollinatorpathway.com

On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 2:20 PM Matthew Shepherd <
matthew.shepherd at xerces.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
>
>
> I’m just passing on this news release from Sen. Merkley (D-OR).
>
>
>
> Matthew
>
>
>
> ***********************************************
>
>
>
> United States Senate
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> November 20, 2019
>
> Contact: Martina McLennan
> <martina_mclennan at merkley.senate.gov?subject=In%20Response%20To:%20Merkley,%20Alexander,%20Carper,%20Rounds%20Introduce%20Bipartisan%20Legislation%20to%20Create%20Monarch%20and%20Pollinator%20Highways>
> /Ray Zaccaro
> <ray_zaccaro at merkley.senate.gov?subject=In%20Response%20To:%20Merkley,%20Alexander,%20Carper,%20Rounds%20Introduce%20Bipartisan%20Legislation%20to%20Create%20Monarch%20and%20Pollinator%20Highways>
> (Merkley) – 202-224-3753
>
>
>
> *Merkley, Alexander, Carper, Rounds Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to
> Create Monarch and Pollinator Highways*
>
> *Bill would help revive monarch and pollinator habitat at a time when the
> population of pollinators—critical to American agriculture—has dangerously
> declined*
>
>
>
> WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley joined Senators Lamar
> Alexander (R-TN), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Mike Rounds (R-SD) today to
> introduce new, bipartisan legislation to help states create
> pollinator-friendly habitats along roads and highways. This legislation
> would help address the steep decline of pollinator populations, which poses
> a serious threat to American farmers and the American food supply.
>
>
>
> Specifically, the *Monarch and Pollinator Highway (MPH) Act of 2019*
> would establish a federal grant program available to state departments of
> transportation and Indian tribes to carry out pollinator-friendly practices
> on roadsides and highway rights-of-way.
>
>
>
> “As monarch and honeybee populations decline precipitously, we don’t just
> risk losing these beautiful creatures—we also face an existential threat to
> American agriculture and our food supply,” *said Merkley*. “Every state
> already contains thousands of miles of green space around roads and
> highways. If we transformed just a fraction of this land back to natural
> pollinator habitat, we could make a real difference to pollinator
> populations. This is a bipartisan, common-sense idea that the Senate should
> adopt without delay.”
>
>
>
> “Pollinators, especially bees, are vital to creating and maintaining the
> habitats and ecosystems that we rely on to produce our food. This bill will
> help states promote highway beautification and preservation of these
> pollinator habitats along roadways,” *Alexander said*. “The Tennessee
> Department of Transportation’s Pollinator Habitat Program is one of the
> nation’s best state efforts in building and maintaining pollinator habitats
> along all of its state-maintained roadways. If this legislation were to
> become law, the Tennessee Department of Transportation could apply for
> federal funding to continue expanding their Pollinator Habitat Program.”
>
>
>
> “Monarch butterflies and other pollinators serve an indispensable role in
> our natural ecosystems, and their population decline poses a profound
> threat to both American food supply and to the economic success of farmers
> in Delaware and throughout the country,” *said Carper, top Democrat on
> the Environment and Public Works Committee*. “Through the use of
> competitive grants and assistance to communities, this bipartisan bill will
> take meaningful, innovative steps towards building up pollinator habitats
> along our nation’s roads and highways – helping our natural environment and
> our nation’s agricultural industry at the same time. I want to thank
> Senators Merkley, Alexander and Rounds for their leadership on this urgent
> issue.”
>
>
>
> “Bees play a vital role in making sure food gets on our table, acting as
> pollinators for approximately one-third of all agricultural products in the
> U.S. Our legislation seeks to use innovation and targeted conservation
> practices to protect and improve bees’ natural habitat so they can continue
> to provide this essential service and make certain future generations of
> crops and plants are produced,” *said Rounds.*
>
>
>
> “With so much of our natural landscape lost the millions of acres of
> roadsides across the US have become increasingly important as pollinator
> habitat,” *said Scott Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society for
> Invertebrate Conservation.* “The Xerces Society is excited to support the *Monarch
> and Pollinator Highway (MPH) Act of 2019* which will provide much needed
> funding for states to maximize habitat management and restoration for these
> vital animals.”
>
>
>
> “Pollinators are in great peril, with populations that have dropped
> precipitously in recent decades. Protecting pollinator habitat along
> roadways is one helpful step in combating this rapid decline of bees and
> butterflies,” *said Jason Davidson, Food and Agriculture Campaigner at
> Friends of the Earth.*
>
>
>
> *MPH Act* grants could be used for:
>
>
>
>    - The planting and seeding of native, locally-appropriate grasses,
>    wildflowers, and milkweed;
>    - Mowing strategies that promote early successional vegetation and
>    limit disturbance during periods of highest use by target pollinator
>    species;
>    - Implementation of an integrated vegetation management approach to
>    address weed and pest issues;
>    - Removing nonnative grasses from planting and seeding mixes except
>    for use as nurse or cover crops; or
>    - Any other pollinator-friendly practices the Secretary of
>    Transportation determines will be eligible.
>
>
>
> The bill also requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to help
> states develop best practices around pollinator-friendly roads and
> highways. The bill would require DOT to develop and make available to state
> departments of transportation a prioritization ranking of
> pollinator-friendly practices on roadsides and highway rights-of-way, and
> to provide technical assistance to states that request it.
>
>
>
> The *MPH Act* comes as the population of monarch butterflies, honeybees,
> and other pollinators face dangerous declines. Western U.S. monarch
> populations hit a record low in 2018, with one researcher describing the
> drop as “potentially catastrophic.”
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/science/monarch-butterfly-california.html>
> The honeybee population has also seen dramatic declines in recent years,
> with a 40% year-over-year decline between 2018 and 2019, and one expert
> describing repeated year-over-year losses as “unsustainably high.”
> <https://abcnews.go.com/US/40-decline-honey-bee-population-winter-unsustainable-experts/story?id=64191609>
> The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that approximately 35% of
> the world’s food crops
> <https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/plantsanimals/pollinate/>
> depend on pollinators for survival.
>
>
>
> ###
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Pollinator mailing list
> Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
> https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator
>
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