Pollinators

Recent News
Native pollinators worth up to $2.4 billion to CA agriculture

Read about the Pollinator Project background

Volunteers help plant insectary hedgerows at Gabriel Farms

On Saturday, March 12, 2011, Cub Scouts from Santa Rosa's Pack 134 and their parents were joined by enthusiastic participants from the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County and staff from the San Francisco-based The Fruit Guys for a Pollinator Planting Day at Gabriel Farm, just west of Graton. The group planted and mulched insectary hedgerows of a variety of native and Mediterranean flowering shrubs and trees, designed to provide year-round nesting habitat and pollen and nectar sources for native bees and other beneficial insects.

This effort contributed significantly to the Gold Ridge RCD's Pollinator Program, which has thus far planted over 5,000 plants on six farms and ranches throughout western Sonoma County, in an effort to support our declining but essential pollinator populations. RCD staff will be monitoring these plantings for diversity and abundance of native bee species, following monitoring protocols developed by project partner The Xerces Society.

For more on this collaborative effort, see The Fruit Guys' article,
The Importance of Pollinators.

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Project Progress

Over 1,200 plants create wildlife corridors
at Rued Vineyards along Graton Road.

Over 400 plants improve on-farm habitat at Three Ox Farm in Blucher Valley.

In November 2010, project participant and Bee-Friendly Farming™-certified Paul Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm was awarded the NACD-NAPPC Farmer Rancher Pollinator Conservation Award, sponsored by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the National Association of Conservation Districts.

A total of 1,300 pollinator plants have thus far been installed on
Singing Frogs Farm through the program, with additional plantings
planned for Fall, 2011.

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More information

Hedgerows for California Agriculture
A Resource Guide

- Community Alliance with Family Farmers

California Plants for Native Bees
Invertabrate Conservation Fact Sheet

- The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Selecting Plants for Pollinators
A Regional Guide for Farmers, Land Managers,
and Gardeners In the California Coastal Steppe
Mixed Forest Redwood Forest Province

- NAPPC & Pollinator Partnership

Selecting Plants for Pollinators
A Regional Guide for Farmers, Land Managers,
and Gardeners In the California Coastal Range
Open Woodland Shrub Coniferous Forest Meadow Province

- NAPPC & Pollinator Partnership

Bee Friendly Farming

- Partners For Sustainable Pollination

Project funded by:
Natural Resources Conservation Service		Sonoma County Fish & Wildlife Commission
North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council		California Wildlife Conservation Board
Project partners:
Farm Stewards		Community Alliance with Family Farmers

Xerces Society

Partners for Sustainable Pollination

Baelin