Rangeland management for pollinators

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Pollinator conservation and rangelands don’t seem like obvious bedfellows. In this era of sustainability, the connection between pollinator conservation and row crops or pollinator conservation and orchards is obvious. But pollinator conservation and rangelands? The reality is that pollinators are a key component of a healthy rangeland ecosystem. The relationship between pollinators and rangeland goes both ways. Pollinators are important for rangelands but rangelands are important for pollinators because they can provide habitat. Pollinators in North America include hummingbirds and bats, but insects—mainly bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, and beetles—make up the vast majority of pollinators. Pollinators are vitally important for functioning ecosystems worldwide. Managers of rangeland systems can play an important part in pollinator conservation. Pollinator conservation will not require a wholesale shift in how managers work in these landscapes but may require changes to timing, intensity, and scale. If managers start to think about all of the components of these ecosystems—even the ones that are not always easy to see—pollinators and all of the flowering plants that depend on them will benefit. Most of the habitat management techniques considered in this article—grazing, prescribed burns, mowing, and herbicide applications—can be used to benefit pollinators. Each can also have damaging, at times severe, impacts on pollinators if they are not used carefully. (The fifth technique discussed here is insecticide applications.) There’s no single management plan that can provide ideal habitat for all pollinator taxa, but there are some general considerations that apply to all situations.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology

SWAP (2/19/2016) citation:
Black SH, M Shepherd and M Vaughan. 2011. Rangeland management for pollinators. Rangelands. 33(3):9-13.