How We Help Pollinators

We are committed to strengthening pollinator health. We join state agencies, Tribes, other federal agencies and non-government groups to take steps to conserve pollinators. Explore the ways we help to conserve pollinators throughout America.

Creating pollinator habitat

Pollinators depend on healthy places to feed, breed and rest. They prefer native plants found in your area, which increase their chance to survive. These plants can be found in different types of habitats and locations, from mountains to prairies in rural or urban areas.

We work to help pollinators by ensuring they have high quality habitat. For example, we create new habitat and restore existing lands to include native milkweed plants for monarchs, include soil cover for ground nesting bees and provide cover for overwintering. Habitat creation and restoration are critical in meeting pollinators’ needs, so that they can live out their entire life cycle - from a baby to an adult.

Partners for Fish and Wildlife program

The Partners for Fish and Wildlife program provides technical and financial assistance to landowners that are interested in creating or improving pollinator habitat and other wildlife habitat on their land. This team of biologists work with public and private landowners to conserve and improve wildlife habitat across the country.

National seed strategy

We work with other federal agencies, Tribes and states to increase the supply of native seeds needed to restore and enhance land, much of which support pollinator habitat. The National Seed Strategy allows us to get the right seeds, in the right place, at the right time (9.8 MB PDF). Native seeds are small, yet an important investment in creating places for pollinators and other wildlife, but they also protect humans from natural disasters and the effects of climate change.

Managing threatened and endangered pollinators

We work to recover threatened and endangered pollinators. We work to conserve pollinators to prevent adding more pollinators to the endangered species list.

• Monarch butterfly
• Search for a listed or proposed pollinator species

We use science-based partnerships to monitor pollinators’ health and behavior, understand best management practices and track restoration efforts. Science guides how we make decisions to protect and conserve pollinators. Science is critical in improving threatened and endangered species in addition to increasing pollinator populations.

Through the Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab we work with the US Geological Survey to learn more about native bees. The lab provides resources to identify different types of bees and the way that they interact with plants and other insects.

Are you interested in learning how to identify native bees with a microscope? If so, contact Biologist Clare Maffei.

The Commission of Environmental Cooperation provides opportunities for the United States, Canada and Mexico to support environmental issues, like pollinators, that are important across North America. The Commission offers opportunities to promote community projects, develop action plans and support our collaborative conservation efforts.

Being a member of the North American Protecting Pollinators Campaign, we support pollinators using research, awareness, collaboration and habitat conservation. This group encourages the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North America.

As one of several federal agencies working in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Pollinator Task Force, we help native pollinators throughout the Great Lakes Basin. This group focuses on collaborative native bee research, inventory and monitoring, habitat restoration and increasing awareness of issues related to native pollinator conservation.

Connecting with other pollinator efforts

Pollinator conservation depends on working with others. Our partners promote health of pollinators through conservation, education and research. We work with them in different ways through voluntary actions across North America. Learn about some of our partners.

• Supporting U.S. Department of Agriculture by the critical role pollinators play in providing the food we eat
• Collaborating with the armed forces to manage pollinators on their lands: Department of Defense Pollinator Conservation Reference Guide (6.9 MB PDF) and U.S. Air Force Pollinator Conservation Reference Guide (15.4 MB PDF)
• Working with Mexico and Canada to research, conserve and restore pollinators through the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management
• Pollinator Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems
• Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats
• Realizing that good pheasant and quail habitat is also good pollinator habitat, we work with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to create pollinator habitat projects in their chapter communities
• Engaging the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in our mission to support the recovery of federally listed butterfly species in the United States and increase public awareness of and involvement in local and regional butterfly conservation efforts
• Monarch Joint Venture is a nonprofit organization building a national partnership of federal and state agencies, other nonprofits, community groups, businesses and academic programs working together to conserve monarch butterflies and other pollinators

Agreements and Reports

In some cases, agreements help direct or inform the purpose of partnerships. Whether an agreement is reached, we are always looking for new and old partners to work with in conserving pollinators and the plants they depend on to survive. Below is a list of agreements and reports between some of our many partners.

• Landowners in New England are invited to participate in the New England pollinator partnership to help restore populations of bumble bees and the monarch butterfly
• Energy and transportation rights-of-way lands in the 48 contiguous United States are invited to participate in the monarch butterfly candidate conservation agreement with assurances (3.1 MB PDF). Additional information can be found on the program administrator's website.