Great Resources

Learning about pollinators and how to help them can be a challenge – not only finding reliable information, but finding information that you can actually use. One of the most helpful resources available is the Pollinator Partnership.

The Pollinator Partnership is a non-profit organization, describing itself as “the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems.”   Their efforts include conservation, education, and research. They are the organization that initiated National Pollinator Week and now manage it (2015 National Pollinator Week runs from June 15 – 21).

The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) is also managed by the Pollinator Partnership – it’s an ongoing private-public collaboration between over 120 partners, ranging from scientists to conservationists, government officials and others. The NAPPC’s mission is to encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North America.  They will be holding their 15^th annual conference this October 22-24, 2015 in Washington, DC at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Registration is open to the public.

If you want to learn more about pollinators in your region and plant appropriately for them, check out the Ecoregional Planting Guides on the Pollinator Partnership website. Designed for farmers, land managers and gardeners, these comprehensive 24-page guides cover everything from regional pollinators, plants that attract pollinators, host plants, plant traits, bloom periods, and more. You can download the free full color guides on their website.

To access the guide for your ecoregion, simply enter your zipcode and your ecoregion will pop up (i.e. Eastern Broadleaf Forest). You will then link to one of 32 ecoregional guides.  Not sure what to plant while at your summer home in Maine or your winter home in Hawaii?  The Partnership even has a guide for the Hawaiian Islands!

In addition to these very useful planting guides, the Pollinator Partnership also offers the Bee Smart Pollinator Gardener app, available for both Android and Apple devices. This free app covers approximately 1,000 U.S. native plants. By entering your zip code, you can access native plants appropriate to your region and then create customized plant lists based on pollinator type, flower color, soil type, sunlight and plant type.

These are just some of the important initiatives of the Pollinator Partnership. Like pollinators themselves, The Pollinator Partnership needs your support, so please consider making a donation to this worthy non-profit organization.

From Kim Eierman at EcoBeneficial!