Evaluating, Establishing & Maintaining Habitat for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects

Archived video of this webinar is available to view anytime HERE

View this webinar to learn how to recognize pollinator habitat and opportunities for habitat creation on organic farms. Resources for conventional farms are also provided.

Populations of pollinators are in decline across the world and interest in protecting these vital animals has never been greater, or more needed. At the same time, the National Organic Rule mandates that organic farmers maintain or improve the natural resources on their farm. These natural resources include on-farm biodiversity. Establishing habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects is increasingly being used to meet these multiple goals: increasing populations of wild native bees, strengthening honey bee hives, and increasing on-farm biodiversity, as well as increasing populations of natural predators and parasitoids of crop pests. However, organic farmers interested in creating pollinator-rich habitat are more limited in the methods they can use to properly prepare a site for planting.In this webinar, Xerces Society pollinator conservationists demonstrate a new Pollinator Habitat Evaluation Guide for organic farms to help NRCS conservation planners and landowners learn how to recognize pollinator habitat and opportunities for habitat creation. Xerces also shares lessons they and NRCS restoration specialists are learning from field trials of organic habitat restoration techniques on farms in the Upper Midwest and at the NRCS Cape May, NJ Plant Materials Center--including basic organic methods for eradicating weeds at new habitat sites prior to planting.

This webinar is sponsored by the USDA NRCS East and West National Technology Support Centers. 

Presenters: Mace Vaughan, Pollinator Program Director, Xerces Society and Joint Pollinator Conservation Specialist, USDA NRCS West National Technology Support Center, Portland, OR
Eric Mader, Assistant Pollinator Program Director, Xerces Society and Extension Professor of Entomology, University of Minnesota

Contact Holli Kuykendall, Ecologist, for more information about our webinars.

Webinars are made possible through a partnership between USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services NRCS, Southern Regional Extension Forestry and North Carolina State University