Pollinator Week June 17-23, 2019

This week is National Pollinator Week. It is a time set aside to celebrate pollinators and to spread the word about what we can do to protect them. It was initiated and is managed by the Pollinator Partnership.

It was twelve years ago the US Senate unanimously approved the designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week.” S Res 580 (108th Congress) reads: A resolution recognizing the importance of pollinators to ecosystem health and agriculture in the United States and the value of partnership efforts to increase awareness about pollinators and support for protecting and sustaining pollinators by designating June 24 through June 30, 2007 as “National Pollinator Week.” (GovTrack)

Things to Do

Pollinators include the bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles (also small mammals) which provide the ecosystem services so necessary to sustain the plant life that helps feed our nation. See Pollinators and our Food. Here are a few things you can do to celebrate Pollinator Week.

• Pollinator Partnership has a listing of special events going on throughout the USA. If you plan to host an event, you should let them know. If you want to simply participate in an event near you, find an event.

• If that doesn’t appeal to you, consider downloading the free Insight Citizen Science app for your Smart Phone. This mobile app allows you to participate in pollinator research and conservation through citizen science activities. Just upload appropriate scientific data you’ve observed about pollinators into the app. It has a helpful guide to help you learn how to observe and identify pollinators.

• Add native plants to your landscape and/or gardens which you know pollinators will be able to use. There are many planting guides available through the Internet. See Planning a Natural Habitat and On-Line Help Picking the Right Native Plant — Update.

  

• Pollinator Week has grown into an international celebration. It gives us the opportunity to talk about and to do something about the declining populations of pollinators. See Flying Insects in Decline. It is an important time for us to make others aware of the importance of the ecosystem services provided by our native pollinators. See Gardening for Pollinators.

• Purchase one of the beautiful posters artists have developed to commemorate Pollinator Week. Use

  

  the posters as an educational tool to help you talk with family, friends and neighbors, as well as students at your local schools and members of local civic organizations. Current and past posters are available through Pollinator Partnership for a donation.

• Donate to organizations promoting the preservation of native pollinators and native plants. For example, Pollinator Partnership or Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes.

Let’s all try to do at least one special thing for pollinators next week.