Celebrate And Help Pollinators
A rusty patched bumble bee on bee balm. The state is a stronghold for this federally listed pollinator species. Click on the image to learn more about its amazing life cycle and an exciting discovery in Wisconsin in 2020 in “A Small Nest Creates Big Buzz” in the Summer Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine. / Photo Credit: Jay Watson
June 21-27 is celebrated nationally as Pollinator Week, and it’s a good time to learn more about and help these wondrous workers. Pollinators visit flowering plants and transfer pollen from flower to flower, allowing the plants to reproduce. Wisconsin’s native pollinators include bees, butterflies, moths, flower flies, beetles, wasps and ruby-throated hummingbirds.
Pollinators are critical to Wisconsin ecosystems and crops including cranberries, cherries and peppers, yet many pollinator populations are in decline in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the U.S. and globally.
Read the news release.
Plant Native Species To Attract & Aid Pollinators
A green comma butterfly on joe pye weed, a good native plant choice to aid pollinators. / Photo Credit: Ryan Brady
Planting native species will attract and aid pollinators such as bumble bees, monarchs and other rare and common pollinators. There are many great resources to help you plant native plants specific to Wisconsin.
Make Your Habitat Count: Add To Wisconsin’s Tally
Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed. Swamp milkweed, butterfly milkweed and common milkweed are Wisconsin milkweed species known to be used by monarchs and easy to establish. / Photo Credit: Becky Roth
Once you’ve planted milkweed and other native plants benefitting pollinators, help make that habitat count.
Enter it into the HabiTally application, now available for smart phones using Android and iOS operating systems. Download it from Google Play or the Apple App store.
The Wisconsin Monarch Collaborative, of which DNR is a partner, encourages people to add their habitat to HabiTally, so it counts towards the 20-year goal of 120 million new stems of milkweed in a mix of wildflowers.
That goal is Wisconsin’s contribution to restoring Midwestern breeding habitat for the eastern population of monarch butterflies that overwinters in Mexico.
Take Other Steps To Help Pollinators
Pollinators need water to drink and safe places to nest, avoid bad weather and spend the winter. Here are some more easy steps to provide pollinators the habitat they need.
- Avoid using pesticides on or near flowering plants used by pollinators.
- Keep some areas in your yard un-mowed, and leave a brush pile or two for nesting areas.
- Provide water in a bird bath.
Help Monitor Pollinators So We Can Conserve Them
An American bumble bee homes in on a spiderwort flower. Citizen scientists reporting their sightings to the DNR’s Wisconsin Bumble Bee Brigade helped document this rare bee in four counties in 2020. / Photo Credit: Jay Watson
Knowing where Wisconsin’s pollinators live and their abundance is critical for their conservation. The DNR’s Wisconsin Bumble Bee Brigade, a statewide citizen science effort to help monitor the location and abundance of Wisconsin’s 20 bumble bee species, is just one of many ways you can get involved to help document populations where you live or farther afield.
Find links to this and other volunteering opportunities on DNR’s Saving Wisconsin’s Native Pollinator webpage.
Collect Seed To Aid Pollinators At State Natural Areas
A Karner blue butterfly, a federally endangered pollinator found in higher numbers in Wisconsin than anywhere else. The Karner blue’s lifecycle depends on one plant, the wild lupine. / Photo Credit: Chelsea Weinzinger
The DNR’s State Natural Areas provide critical habitats for pollinators. Help federally endangered Karner blue butterflies by collecting wild lupine at Quincy Bluff and Wetlands State Natural Area in Adams County from June 28 through July 8 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. as available. All lupine seeds will be used for oak and pine barrens restoration to promote habitat for endangered Karner blue butterflies, one of the state’s pollinators.
Volunteers are welcome to participate on one or multiple days. Seed harvesting will occur Monday – Thursday. No experience is necessary.
Interested? Please RSVP with your availability by contacting Trevor Woodall at 630-248-8468 or twood950@uwsp.edu. Secondary contact: Josh Karow at 608-403-6243 or joshua.karow@wisconsin.gov.
Find other State Natural Areas where you can volunteer to aid pollinators and improve habitat for other native species on our SNA Volunteer web pages.
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