Celebrate Pollinator Week By Helping the Bees!

Pollinator Week, organized by the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership, is recognized every June  to raise awareness about the importance of pollinators to healthy ecosystems.

Pollinators are vital to our food sources and natural landscapes. They include bees, birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps and small mammals. Pollinators transfer pollen on their bodies from plant to plant, helping those plants reproduce. These plants provide us with fruits, vegetables and nuts.

There are many ways to help pollinators in New Hampshire! You can start small by first increasing your knowledge about plants and gradually transforming your outdoor spaces to be more friendly to pollinators. Here are resources that can help.

1. Learn about pollinator plants for New England gardens and start growing!

Planting a diverse mix of flowering plants that provides a sequence of blooms from early spring to late fall will have the most impact. Even a small patch of the right flowers can help, as it adds to the larger landscape mosaic in which the pollinators live and search for food.

2.  Obtain pollinator certification 

UNH Extension and UMaine Extension have teamed up to offer gardeners and landowners the opportunity to certify your gardens or property as “pollinator-friendly” to help ensure you are providing for the needs of pollinators and to help spread the word about the importance of pollinators and how others can join this effort.

3. Establish a wildflower meadow from seed

Wildflower meadows and gardens are extremely valuable habitat, providing floral resources, nesting sites and a protected environment for hundreds of bee species, moths and butterflies, and other insects. 

4. Join the Beecology Project

Through this citizen science effort you can digitally collect and submit ecological data on native pollinator species using free smartphone and web apps. 

5. When autumn comes, don't remove flower stalks and leaves

Rather than removing leaves and flower stalks, let them be to provide critical food and shelter for native birds, butterflies, bees and bugs, helping them to survive the winter.