Image reading Celebrating Pollinator Habitat on Energy and Transportation Lands

Happy National Pollinator Week!

Celebrate pollinators on June 17-23, 2019! Pollinators are integral to our everyday lives and are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we take.1  These amazing creatures are also in danger due to habitat loss from increasing land development and intensifying land management practices, climate change, and other factors.

 

Did you take the bio-mimicry test?  Find the answers HERE.  

Learn more about how insects disguise themselves to stay alive!

 

Did you know that rights-of-way (ROW) can create important pathways and havens for pollinators? There are more than 17 million acres of roadsides2, 21 million acres of electric transmission and pipeline ROW3, and approximately 3 million acres of railroad ROW4  in the U.S. alone! As habitat resources around the world diminish, ROW help to provide the food and shelter that many of our beloved birds, butterflies, and other wildlife so desperately need.The Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group engages energy and transportation organizations to promote pollinator habitat on ROW and other lands across the U.S. and Canada.    Learn more here.

 

Image of a butterfly        Find fast facts about pollinators here.

Image of a bee        Get involved! Learn more about National Pollinator Week here..

 

 

 

 

References:

  1. https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week 
  2. Ament, R., J. Begley, S. Powell, and P. Stoy. 2014. Roadside Vegetation and Soils on Federal Lands-Evaluation of the Potential for Increasing Carbon Capture and Storage and Decreasing Carbon Emissions. Report for the Federal Highway Administration, #DTFH68-07-E-00045. Available:http://www.westerntransportationinstitute.org/documents/reports/4W3748_Final_Report.pdf)
  3. Conniff, Richard. 2014. Electric Power Rights of Way: A New Frontier for Conservation. Yale Environment 360. Available: https://e360.yale.edu/features/electric_power_rights_of_way_a_new_frontier_for_conservation)
  4. Association of American Railroads. 2018. Freight Railroads in the United States. Available: https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/AAR-United-States-Fact-Sheet.pdf; Merrill, Dave and Lauren Leatherby. 2018. Here’s How America Uses Its Land. Bloomberg. Available: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/)