New England Pollinator Partnership (NEPP)

Importance of NEPP for pollinators

Providing floral habitat

Pollinating insects need nectar and pollen food sources to be able to live, reproduce, and maintain populations. High quality habitats, like those created using the NRCS practice Wildlife Habitat Planting (420), provide a diversity of native perennial wildflowers that offer a variety of nectar and pollen resources throughout the entire growing season.

Providing floral resources throughout the entire season is very important for providing habitat to a variety of species that may be active at different times and for species like the rusty-patched bumble bee that has a long lifecycle and is active from April-September. The presence of high-quality insect habitat throughout the landscape provides other benefits, such as ecological pest control, increased food for other wildlife, and increased carbon sequestration. 
 

Providing nesting and overwintering resources

Pollinators also require unique nesting and overwintering resources to complete their life cycles. Native bees will nest or overwinter in a variety of natural structures such as within old rodent burrows in the soil, leaf litter, downed logs, snag trees, rock walls, hollow stems, or under bunch grasses. It is important to ensure these resources are available nearby when creating habitat for native bees, so their travel distance from food resources to nesting and overwintering resources will not cause these animals to expend excessive energy. A simple action such as creating a snag tree or leaving leaf litter or bunch grasses throughout the winter in an edge area next to flowering habitat can create habitat with all of the necessary elements for a pollinator to live, reproduce, and carry-on to the next generation. The NRCS practice Structures for Wildlife (649) can support landowners in the creation of many of these important resources.
 

Providing protection from management activities

Providing high quality habitat that is safe from pesticide exposure or other disturbance is also critical for conserving these covered species and all pollinator species. Management actions such as mowing can completely change the value of pollinator habitat by removing flowers during the active bee season. Pesticide use can also have potential effects to the value of habitat if herbicides are able to drift into habitat areas, harming floral resources. Pesticides like insecticide or fungicide can also create negative effects for exposed insects. 

Other simple ways to reduce harm to pollinators and their habitat include adjusting mowing schedules (timing and frequency) to avoid mowing areas with milkweed when monarch caterpillars are present on the milkweed host plants and mowing in the dormant season after plants are done blooming and pollinators are not active. NRCS practices like Pest Management Conservation System (595), Early Successional Habitat Development/Management (647), or Upland Wildlife Habitat Management (645) can help land managers create management plans that reduce harm to pollinators.