Location
States
MaineIntroduction
Pollinator populations have declined throughout the United States, leading to the loss of pollination ecosystem services. These losses are especially concerning for agricultural producers who depend on pollinators for crop pollination. To address these declines, state and federal agencies are looking for new ways to increase habitat for pollinators. One such way is by enabling private landowners to engage in pollinator habitat restoration. The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has implemented a cost-sharing program to enable local landowners to implement pollinator habitat restoration on private lands.
While increased funding opportunities such as the NRCS cost-sharing program provide local landowners with the financial resources to implement pollinator restoration, these programs are often not well known among agricultural communities. In addition, regional best practices for pollinator habitat restoration are not always well established or widely available. As a result, landowners interested in improving habitat conditions for pollinators may not be aware of the funding available to them, or understand how to conduct pollinator habitat restoration using those resources.
In 2021, the Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District (CASWCD) in northern Maine developed demonstration plots to provide local landowners with the technical expertise they need to conduct pollinator habitat restoration on their private lands. In addition, managers hope to increase awareness of the NRCS cost-sharing program.
Key Issues Addressed
Maine’s Aroostook county is a primarily agricultural community that has been adversely impacted by recent declines in pollinator populations. Pollinator declines are driven broadly by disease, parasites, environmental contaminants, and habitat loss. The loss of pollinators not only threatens the health of local ecosystems, but also causes the loss of important pollinating services for the roughly 35% of food crops that require pollination. The NRCS cost-sharing program responded to this issue by providing funding to local landowners to implement pollinator habitat restoration activities on their private lands, particularly in fallowed (non-producing) agricultural land.
While increased funding programs have lessened the financial barrier for private landowners, pollinator habitat restoration poses a unique set of technical challenges. Developing seed mixes, obtaining plant materials, choosing seeding rates and weed treatment techniques, and monitoring pollinator returns may pose barriers to the utilization of pollinator habitat funding programs. The development of best practices to overcome these technical barriers to pollinator habitat restoration is therefore a high priority.
A lack of public awareness of the NRCS cost-sharing program has remained an obstacle to its widespread adoption in northern Maine. Similarly, once restoration technique recommendations are developed, effective means of outreach to share these need to be established. Managers at CASWCD are therefore interested in developing restoration recommendations for local landowners, and increasing awareness and use of the cost-sharing program through regional outreach efforts.
Project Goals
- Test restoration methods on demonstration plots to develop best practice recommendations for technical aspects of restoration like seed mixes, seeding methods, and soil treatments to remove weeds and build soil organic matter
- Establish demonstration plots to show habitat restoration projects on fallowed agricultural lands to enable landowners to assess which methods are best for their situation
- Monitor pollinators on demonstration plots to assess success of restoration efforts in increasing habitat for pollinators
- Share resources like seed mix lists, pollinator identification guides, and seeds with local landowners
- Increase awareness of NRCS pollinator habitat restoration cost-sharing program
Project Highlights
Cost-Sharing Conservation:NRCS will cover up to 75% of the expense for habitat restoration projects on private lands in Maine through the 2019 Pollinator Initiative.
- Demonstration Plots: The CASWCD prepared soil treatment demonstration plots over the summer of 2021 and seeded them the following fall. After the 2022 spring growing season, plots will be shared through a ‘field day,’ where landowners will be encouraged to view demonstration plots, ask questions, receive advice for conducting restoration on their private lands, and learn more about the NRCS cost-sharing program.
- Seeds and Seeding: CASWCD partnered with Xerces Society to produce a seed list focused on important species for pollinators like purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). This seed list will be available to private landowners at upcoming field days. Xerces Society donated seeds from a regional plant materials producer at a cost of approximately $900/acre. Managers hand-broadcasted seeds across 2.5 acres with a seeding rate of around 70 seeds/ft2, and followed with a roto-tiller.
- Soil Treatments: CASWCD compared five different soil treatments across demonstration plots to remove and prevent weed growth and build soil organic matter. Soil treatments included solarization using black weed fabric (heating the soil to kill weeds) followed by light roto-tilling, glyphosate herbicide and tilling, mowing to 6”, tilling and planting a buckwheat cover crop, and harrowing (breaking up the top layer of soil). Pollinators were most abundant on plots that were mowed or planted with cover crops in the summer after treatments in the summer 2021.
- Pollinator Monitoring: To aid in pollinator identification and monitoring on private lands, CASWCD produced a regional bee identification guide, that will be shared at upcoming field days. Researching and developing the identification guide took around one month to complete, and printing cost $7 per copy.
Lessons Learned
For small sites like the CASWCD demonstration plots, hand-harvested seeds are less expensive than purchased seed mixes, and allow managers to select for priority native species. In the first season of planting at demonstration plots, managers used native and nonnative seeds from a regional plant materials producer. In the future, CASWCD plans to use hand-harvested seeds from sites around the demonstration plots instead.
Initially, managers planned to use a no-till seeder to disperse seeds, however variable seed sizes in the seed mix prevented its use. Managers switched to hand-broadcasting seeds, which proved effective but required an increased seeding rate. Seeding rate increased from an intended rate of 60 seeds/ft2 to approximately 70 seeds/ft2. As a result, the total seeded area decreased from 3 acres to approximately 2.5 acres. Managers note that hand-broadcasting seeds tends to lead to increased seeding rates compared to the no-till seeder.
Managers found that black woven weed fabric was as effective in removing weeds via solarization as traditional black plastic sheets. These plastic sheets are thin and easily torn by wildlife like deer, whereas woven weed fabric is more resilient to trampling by wildlife. Solarization treatments using woven weed fabric are likely to be effective for landowners from small operations up to ~5,000 acres. While managers have to wait until after the growing season to determine results of soil treatments, results are likely to vary.
When comparing early results of soil preparation methods in the fall of 2021, managers found the abundance of pollinators on demonstration plots before seeding was impacted by the preparation method. On mowed plots, managers suspect that abundant wild strawberries attracted pollinators, leading to an increase in their presence. Similarly, pollinators were more abundant on plots planted with buckwheat as a cover crop, which managers suspect was due to the plant flowering. In contrast, pollinators were less abundant on plots treated with glyphosate herbicide. Pollinator abundance on demonstration plots may differ after the winter, as treatment methods that remove dead plant material or disturb the soil surface reduce the availability of habitat for pollinators that overwinter in plant stems or by burrowing in soil.
Next Steps
- CASWCD managers plan to collect seeds throughout the summer to be used on demonstration plots during the upcoming fall. Plants will be identified and flagged during their respective flowering period, and collected once seeds are produced. Common native species found in surrounding areas include wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca), fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium), and goldenrod (Solidago spp.), among others. CASWCD will work with landowners to find plant materials, which may include distributing these hand-harvested seeds.
- CASWCD will conduct field days annually. Local landowners are encouraged to view demonstration plots and receive guidance on pollinator focused restoration methods. CASWCD managers additionally hope to help with seed provisioning, and will provide guidance on cost-sharing program use.
- Managers plan to continue testing the success of different seed mixes in recruiting pollinators to demonstration plots over upcoming seasons, including seed-mixes which include only native plants. Testing seed mixes will aid in the development of recommendations for local landowners, based on site characteristics.
Funding Partners
Resources
- A Practical Guide to Bee Identification in Aroostook County
- NRCS Cost-Sharing Program Memo
- Xerces Society Aroostook County Seed Mix
Contacts
Randy Martin, Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District: centralaroostookswcd@gmail.com
CART Lead Author
Nicolas Katz, CART Student Intern, University of Arizona
Suggested Citation
Katz, N.A., and Martin, R. (2022). “Outreach and Best Practices for Pollinator Habitat Restoration in Northern Maine”. CART. Retrieved from https://www.fws.gov/project/best-practices-pollinator-habitat-restoration.