NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/483826
T he monarch butterfly isn't the only insect that is in decline. Pollinators in general, including butterflies, moths, flies, native bees, non-native honey bees, ants, birds, bats, and other species are becoming fewer. Why should you care? Because pollinators help about 85 percent of the worlds' flowering plants reproduce, including many of the fruits, vegetables and nuts that we eat, as well as those eaten by wildlife. Moving pollen from the male to female parts of a single plant, or from one plant to another, is what produces seeds or fruit. Honeybees, imported from Europe in the 17th century to pollinate crops, do this for at least 90 commercially grown crops in North America. Around the world, 87 of the top 115 food crops – 35 percent of the global food – depend on pollinators. Monarch populations are down 90 percent in the past 20 years. The number of honeybee hives is down 60 percent from 1942. There are many factors causing the decline, especially the widespread use of herbicides and insecticides and habitat loss. The latter is something everyone – homeowners, acreage owners, farmers, ranchers and public land managers – can help reverse by turning grass into pollinator habitat. Whether planting a backyard "butterfly garden" or enrolling land in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program, the key is to plant many types of native wildflowers. "The more you have, the better," said Pete Berthelsen, director of habitat partnerships for Pheasants Forever, noting that variety helps ensure that there will be wildflowers in bloom from April through October. Biologists have discovered that "great pollinator habitat is great habitat for all kinds wildlife," Berthelsen said, especially pheasants and quail. Under a canopy of wildflowers, chicks have plenty of room to move around and chase the insects that make up 95 percent of a chick's diet. The Farm Bill Wildlife Biologist program, a partnership between Pheasants Forever, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and other state wildlife agencies, is promoting the use of high-diversity mixtures for CRP that include 30 to 50 species of wildflowers, including milkweed, and are no more than 50 percent grass. "The great news is those mixtures don't have to cost any more than what the old traditional mixtures did," Berthelsen said. Those old mixes still in use a few years ago often included just five grasses and a few forbs, and soon grew into a solid stand of grass that provided winter cover for pheasants and quail, but had little value the remainder of the year. Chris Helzer manages prairies for The Nature Conservancy in the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska that have been restored with up to 230 species of grasses and forbs. "If you've got good plant diversity and you have scale, those are the two things that are critical for almost every wildlife species you could be interested in," he said. One of the biggest challenges in the creation of pollinator habitat continues to be the thought of what is and isn't a weed. Helzer has worked to change that perception among county weed superintendents, farmers and anyone else who will listen, but still sees many people "spray everything that's not grass. That's going to take a long time to change, I'm afraid. "Plants that we might think of as weeds are really good pollinator habitat," he said. "Like hoary vervain or native thistle or milkweed. Those are the three top butterfly plants on the Platte River and they're considered weeds by most farmers and sprayed." Cattlemen can help the cause with pollinators, too. Helzer has watched cows eat the flowers off every milkweed plant in a pasture. Using a rotation that rests pastures every few years will ensure that the plants can flower, produce seed, spread Pollinators Why and How You Can Help The State Farm Lincoln Operations Center converted 8¼ acres of turf to native grasses and wildflowers, creating pollinator habitat and saving $16,000 a year in mowing, fertilizer and weed control and 2 million gallons of water in irrigation. 32 NEBRASKAland • APRIL 2015