National Pollinator Week
National Pollinator Week (June 18-24) is an important time to celebrate native pollinators and highlight the need for pollinator conservation for the benefit of intact native plant communities, ecological integrity and healthy ecosystems. Yes, pollinators are important for food and agriculture, but even more important, pollinators are the key to our natural world. Without pollinators, or even with diminished populations of pollinators, the makeup of plant life as we know it today would be drastically different. Pollinators sustain our ecosystems by helping plants reproduce. Pollinators are experiencing drastic declines throughout the world; many species have gone extinct and many more are in jeopardy. Everyone needs to do their part to help with pollinator conservation. Planting native plants is one of the best things you can do to help native pollinators. Make a commitment to GO NATIVE—GO WILD for National Pollinator Week!
From the Pollinator Partnership: “Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination – they need pollinators. Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops. That means that 1 out of every three bites of food you eat is there because of pollinators. If we want to talk dollars and cents, pollinators add 217 billion dollars to the global economy. In addition to the food that we eat, pollinators support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect from severe weather, and support other wildlife.”
