How To Help the Pollinators?

Start By Feeding Them, Protect Habitat and Gardens!

Native plants are basis of our food supply

Did you know that we’ve lost 50% of our songbirds in the last 40 years? Also that monarch populations have declined by 90% in the last two decades, despite that these are just showy species that people pay attention to. This doesn’t exclude all of the unsung heroes out there, such as the native “solitary” bees that account for 90% of the bees worldwide and do the majority of the pollination? Their populations are declining too!

15,364 scientists from 184 countries signed “A Second Notice”. which is an open letter to humanity pleading to humans to cut greenhouse gases and reverse the trend of collapsing biodiversity. They are seeking to raise awareness that a mass species extinction is currently happening. This is the sixth mass extinction in the last 540 million years.

How did we get here? 

It’s simple. Across the US, we’ve taken away 95% of the base of the food chain—native plants, or the plants that are indigenous to a region and we’ve replaced them with urban spaces, agriculture, invasive plants, ornamental plants, and lawn. Did you know that we have three times more lawn than we do our largest agricultural crop of corn? And ornamental plants that are often non-native or cultivated for showy traits offer little nutrition to native insects and wildlife?

When we do pollinator puppet shows with the kids, they understand right away that if we pull out the foundation of the ecosystem, the tower will collapse. Maybe we can learn something from the kids’ honest perspective.

The Solution

There’s no doubt about it, this is heavy stuff. But let’s ask the kids. What do we need to do to fix this problem? Put the base layer of blocks back—the native plants! Protection of the habitat and gardens! It can be done.

So let’s get to work! Let’s “flip” our yards, our schoolyards, community center spaces—all the grassy areas that aren’t actively used as play or gathering spaces and replant the ecological communities, that were once there so we can support the pollinators that sustain us! Pledge to Plant for Pollinators and Clean Water at this website. It also has links to help you get started.