Pollinators need you         You need pollinators.

When a pollen grain moves from the anther (male part) of a flower to the stigma (female part), pollination happens. This is the first step in a process that produces seeds, fruits, and the next generation of plants. This can happen through self-pollination, wind, and water pollination, or through the work of vectors that move pollen within the flower and from bloom to bloom.

Butterflies, Birds, bats, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, bees are pollinators. They visit flowers to drink nectar or feed off pollen and transport pollen grains as they move from spot to spot.

Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination – they need pollinators. Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops. That means that 1 out of every three bites of food you eat is there because of pollinators. If we want to talk dollars and cents, pollinators add 217 billion dollars to the global economy, and honeybees alone are responsible for between 1.2 and 5.4 billion dollars in agricultural productivity in the United States. In addition to the food that we eat, pollinators support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect from severe weather, and support other wildlife.

Fortunately, Ocean Park Estate and Gardens has compiled planting guides that helps you select the right plant for the right spot. Plant the right plants on highway rights of ways, farms, schools, home gardens, corporate landscapes and on public spaces. It matters for all of us.

Pollinator populations are changing. Many pollinator populations are in decline and this decline is attributed most severely to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats. Pollution, the misuse of chemicals, disease, and changes in climatic patterns are all contributing to shrinking and shifting pollinator populations. In some cases, there isn’t enough data to gauge a response, and this is even more worrisome.

Pollinators need help, but we know how to help them! Scientists and research partners that have been studying pollinators for over three decades have been able to show that conservation techniques work. If everyone – homeowners, local governments, national governments, and private industry – made the effort we could change the future for pollinators and secure our own.

Adding natural habitat areas into farm systems works. Farms that are closer to natural habitat produce more crop yield because they attract more pollinators. Adding habitat to farms systems works too – farms that have turned a portion of their fields into green space have gained back more overall yield. Homeowners can help too! Home gardens can and do attract pollinators, and in many cases suburbs and cities have been shown to have more diverse pollinator communities than nearby wildlands. Pollinators don’t seem to be phased by city life, as long as there are plots and patches of flowers they will be visited. Pollinator gardening near community gardens also increases urban agricultural yields. If you build it, they will come and help you grow bigger and better crops too!