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Melinda CepSenior Adviser to the SecretaryOffice of the Secretary, USDA
FY 16-17: Agency Priority Goal
Pollinator Habitat Health
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
Wherever flowering plants flourish, pollinating bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and other animals are hard at work, providing vital but often unnoticed services. Some three-fourths of all native plants in the world require pollination by an animal, most often an insect, and most often a native bee. The attributed value of crops in the United States that are directly dependent on insect pollination was estimated at $15.12 billion in 2009, including an estimated $11.68 billion of crop value directly attributable to honey bees.
But many pollinators are in serious decline in the United States and worldwide. Preventing continued losses of our country’s pollinators requires immediate national attention, as pollinators play a critical role in maintaining diverse ecosystems and in supporting agricultural production. Unabated, these losses of our pollinators threaten agricultural production, the maintenance of natural plant communities, and the important services provided by those ecosystems, such as carbon cycling, flood and erosion control, and recreation. Restoring, enhancing and conserving pollinator habitat can mitigate pollinator losses by providing abundant sources of pollen and nectar, and space for other essential niche requirements, such as nesting sites.
USDA has the capacity to improve and expand pollinator habitat through two private landowner incentive programs: Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
Strategies
- Expand acreage in CRP CP-42
- Expand EQIP acreage implementing pollinator-friendly practices
- Continue to enhance the technical guidance for pollinator habitat used for conservation efforts on private lands, such as technical notes on seeding methods and plant species used for habitat, including specific pollinator species.
- Encourage innovative pollinator habitat demonstration projects through the Conservation Innovation Grant Program.
- USFS will restore or enhance 300,000 acres of pollinator habitat in FY2016 and FY2017 and enhancement including vegetation management, invasive plant control, and native seed development and deployment.
- USFS will restore, rehabilitate or revegetate 250,000 acres of monarch butterfly habitat in FY2016 and FY2017 towards the goal of increasing the eastern population to 250 million monarch butterflies. Native habitats will be increased by restoration through prescribed fire treatments, invasive plant control and native plant development and deployment.
- USFS will restore, rehabilitate or revegetate 250,000 acres of monarch butterfly habitat in FY2016 and FY2017.
Progress Update
- USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS): Landowner interest to apply for voluntary programs to establish pollinator habitat remains very good. In 2016, NRCS enrolled nearly 31,000 acres in targeted efforts for honey bees and monarch butterflies in EQIP and WRP. Data for contracts in CSP are is still being compiled, and is expected to further increase the total number of acres enrolled in fiscal year 2016. NRCS continues to increase awareness of the need for increased pollinator habitat, particularly for honey bees and monarch butterflies. To further NRCS’ capacity to promote and develop plans for high quality pollinator habitat, in 2016 the agency entered into a public-private partnership with The Xerces Society and General Mills. The combined financial resources of NRCS and General Mills will allow Xerces to provide support to NRCS field offices in several key areas of the country for pollinator habitat conservation planning over the next five years. In 2016, NRCS awarded one Regional Conservation Partnership Project (RCPP), Improving Working Lands for Monarch Butterflies, for $6 million to work with agricultural producers in 9 States to improve monarch butterfly habitat along the primary monarch butterfly migratory route in the central US.
- USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has exceeded our FY 2016 year-end goal of 200,000 acres of CRP pollinator habitat (342,000 totaled acres enrolled). The maximum allocation for this practice has been increased to 300,000. In addition, recent studies have shown that over 15 million acres of overall CRP acres benefit pollinators.
- The USDA Forest Service in partnership with the Xerces Society has been developing Pollinator Friendly Best Management Practices for Grazing.
- The Forest Service Native Plant Materials Program identified pollinator friendly forbs to be produced in Forest Service nurseries or through contracts with private nurseries. These efforts are implementing the Native Seed Reserve portion of the National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators.
- The Forest Service initiated in FY 2016 an assessment of native plant material needs and capacity as part of the federal effort to build the pollinator friendly Native Seed Reserve.
- The Forest Service, in partnership with the Natural Areas Association, produced a special edition in FY 2016 of the Natural Areas Journal “Managing for Pollinators on Natural Areas.” The Forest Service hosted a pollinator symposium at the 43rd Natural Areas Conference: Climate Change Adaptation and Natural Areas Management: Turning Words to Action in Davis, California.
- The Forest Service participated in various education and outreach activities during Celebrating Pollinators week.
- The Forest Service, in partnership with NatureServe, has produced a peer-reviewed report on the Conservation and Management of Leaf Cutter Bee; additional work on a guide for flower flies has been started.
- The Forest Service restored, enhanced or maintained 366,027 acres of pollinator habitat in FY 2016. Of the 366,027 acres restored, enhanced, or maintained 251,215 acres were in habitat that support Monarch butterfly migration.
Next Steps
- USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) plans to continue both targeted efforts for honey bees and monarch butterflies into 2017. The multi-year study with the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (funded collaboratively by NRCS and Farm Service Agency (FSA)) to examine the floral resources used by honey bees, the impact of those resources on honey bee health, and the opportunity to improve conservation seed mixes for honey bee habitat should have sufficient data to help refine the quality of honey bee habitat plantings in 2017.
- USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) county offices will continue to enroll pollinator acreage in the Conservation Reserve Program. Only acreage in the pollinator specific practice will be counted.
- USDA's Forest Service will continue emphasizing the importance of pollinator habitat restoration and enhancement by providing direction to field units regarding its priority. Further, the Forest Service will work collaboratively with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Farm Service Agency to evaluate performance data to determine the effectiveness of implementation strategies.
- The Forest Service is continuing its restoration and enhancement of pollinator habitat through the use of a number of land management tools, such as invasive species removal, planting pollinator friendly forbs, restoring oak and pine savannas, and oak woodlands.
- The Forest Service is continuing its efforts to restore and enhance Monarch habitat for the eastern population. The agency has targeted an additional 250,000 acres of Monarch habitat to be restored and/or enhanced to include the planting of milkweed in some cases.
- The Forest Service is continuing to develop partnerships to implement the National Strategy. The agency is working on finalizing and publishing a series of guides of hummingbird habitat management recommendations for land managers. The final two guides are completed, one is in the process of being printed, and the other is in the printing approval process.
Expand All
Performance Indicators
Number of honey bee habitat effort acres in EQIP
Number of pollinator acres restored or enhanced on United States Forest Service lands
Number of Monarch habitat acres in EQIP and WRP
Other Indicators
Pollinators Enrolled in CRP
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
USDA’s intramural and extramural research programs, and their contributions to understanding the multiple interacting stressors affecting pollinators, will also play a critical role in improving overall pollinator health. Additionally, the research, regulatory and habitat enhancement programs of other Federal agencies, including Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, will play a significant role in improving pollinator health.
This APG aligns with USDA Strategic Plan Goal 4 – Ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources.
No Data Available
