Lawn-Less Yard Solutions

By Jeanne Huber, This Old House magazine

 

Photo:  Karen Bussolini

 

Major Curb Appeal

Less lawn can result in outdoor living spaces that demand less of your time and energy—not to mention less water, gas, and electricity. Fall's cooler temperatures make now a good time to set the wheels in motion for a new and improved yard.

Less-lawn solution: If you live where every house flaunts an immaculate, weed-free front lawn, giving up grass entirely might read as an act of rebellion. But you can gradually shift toward a front yard that's more garden than lawn by establishing deep planting beds that curve along the front and sides of the house.

Experiment with designs by laying out garden hose in a gentle curve, then bring out the mower and test to make sure that whatever lawn remains takes a shape that's easy to trim. If you have an in-ground sprinkler system, also factor in the area that individual sprinkler heads spray: Plug heads you don't need, or convert them to supply a water-efficient drip irrigation system for the new planting beds. Your yard will be lushly planted—and easy to maintain—if you add wide borders with low-care perennials and shrubs to the mix.

 

Photo:  Karen Bussolini

 

Outdoor Living and Dining Space

Less-lawn solution: Transform a well-defined area close to the house by trading turf grass for a dry-laid brick patio or a patch of gravel with outdoor furniture. Just be sure to choose permeable paving that allows water to percolate through (not a broad expanse of concrete), so you don't create a parking lot–type yard where rain collects in puddles and storm drains instead of returning to the soil.

Define the space with a low wall, a perimeter of planting beds, or a collection of container plantings. Create an inviting path from one area of the yard to another with flagstone pavers: By tucking spreading, tread-friendly groundcovers like creeping thyme into the crevices, you'll create a rock-garden feeling and cut down on watering

 

Photo:  Keller & Keller

 

Play Areas for Kids to Explore

Less-lawn solution: For many kids today, what's missing from their lives isn't a play structure or a sports field (parks and after-school activities offer plenty of that), but the chance for a one-on-one connection with nature. In that sense, a small flower or vegetable garden or, for older kids, a backyard pond that supports fish, frogs, or other wetland creatures can provide more lasting play value than a lawn alone. A low, freestanding deck connected to the rest of the yard with paths that wind among shrubs can serve as a base for forts or a stage for plays.

For toddlers, an oversize sandbox is a great choice. Cover it with bird netting, rather than plastic sheeting, between uses to keep cats and other critters from using it as a litter box while permitting sunlight, a natural sanitizer, to reach the sand.

 

Photo:  Garden Picture Library

 

Habitat for Birds, Bees, and Butterflies

Less-lawn solution: Outside a kitchen or home-office window, position shrubs that provide food and cover for birds, such as highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), red osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera), common spicebush (Lindera benzoin), and viburnum varieties. Add a small water feature—a birdbath or fountain—as the focal point. Then, when you want a distraction from the mundane tasks, you can watch the wildlife.

If you have the space, establishing a "minimeadow" as a border or boundary area is another effective way to attract birds, as well as beneficial insects. Native plants like goldenrod, sunflower, and coneflower supply nectar for butterflies and, in fall, produce seeds for birds to enjoy. Make sure you have a sunny site—and can tolerate a weedy look at the edge of your property. Check that you won't run head-on into local ordinances or subdivision rules that require lawns to be mowed to a certain height. At American Meadows, you can find seed mix custom-blended for your part of the country. Watching what happens is part of the fun. Cornflower, cosmos, and other annuals typically grow quickly and put on a great show the first year; then perennials come on stronger and eventually take over.

 

Photo:  Saxon Holt

 

Green Carpet That's Not Grass

Less-lawn solution: If you crave the open look of a lush lawn, low-growing groundcovers may be your best alternative. TOH landscape contractor Roger Cook warns that many low-growing groundcovers are sold as small plants, and establishing them over a large area can be costly. So he often uses higher-growing groundcovers along the edges or creates a patchwork quilt that mixes high-growing types (such as sweet woodruff, or Galium odoratum, and ferns) with low growers. He favors bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) on sandy sites and junipers in sunny spots; where it's okay for plants to die back in winter, he often plants hostas.

Foot-traffic-friendly groundcovers that compete well with weeds and stay relatively short without mowing include mat-forming creeping thyme, grasslike blue sedge (Carex glauca), and mounding moss phlox (a good choice on hillsides where mowing is difficult). The Plant Info section at Stepables includes a feature to help you find suitable species according to the amount of foot traffic they will get (and accounts for sun and water needs, as well). With a little searching, you can find a spreading groundcover that gives you the kind of green space that appeals to your sense of style, makes fewer demands on your time—and is easier on the earth.

 

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/m/photos/0,,20153493,00.html?xid=socialflow_twitter

 

 

 

 

Green Roofs Serve as Vital Wildlife Habitat

The world's best thinkers on the urban future

 

June 19, 2012

 

Green roof’s provide the benefit of natural heating and insulation, a lovely space to escape to amidst the bustle of city-life, but new research shows that they are also providing a vital refuge for birds as they fly through on their way to somewhere else.

Dustrin Patridge is a doctoral candidate at Fordham University, and he’s been tracking the insect life – as well as monitoring which birds are stopping over.

Reporter Rachel Nuewer visited Partridge for Ecomagination to get a closer look at these beautiful green roofs, and the research that Partridge is doing.

Watch “Eating on a Green Roof” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pESYN9TfN2w

Source: Ecomagination

 

 

 

Gardening for Wildlife: Corralling the Rain

Rain gardens offer a natural solution to runoff pollution

07-27-2015 // Mark Wexler

 

 

FOR DECADES, PEOPLE LIVING ALONG 8TH AVE NW in Puyallup, Washington, watched helplessly as their yards and street flooded during heavy rainstorms. With each flood, rivers of runoff tainted with lawn chemicals, car oil, animal waste and other pollutants poured into sewers and area waterways. But a few years ago, residents found a cost-effective solution to their problem: gardens designed to manage the rain.

Working with local authorities and landscape designers, residents installed bioretention cells, or rain gardens, in their yards and along the two-block-long avenue. “We haven’t had flooding problems since,” says homeowner Steve Hollis, “and the rain garden in our front yard has improved both the appearance and value of our property.”

 

Using Nature as a Sponge

The 8th Avenue project is part of a campaign—initiated by Washington State University Extension and the nonprofit Stewardship Partners in Seattle—to build 12,000 rain gardens on private property in the Puget Sound area by the end of 2016. Washington State scientists say at least 14 million pounds of toxic contaminants flow annually into the sound, much of it coming from urban communities. “The majority of our area’s water pollution is caused by rainwater runoff from our streets, driveways, lawns and rooftops,” says Stewardship Partners Program Manager Aaron Clark.

Across the country, hundreds of other municipalities are also supporting “green infrastructure” projects that utilize rain gardens and other natural processes. “Traditionally, cities have built huge, expensive concrete structures to control runoff,” says U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Roger Bannerman, an expert on bioretention systems. “But the paradigm slowly is changing, and more and more communities are turning to natural solutions.”

Designed to capture and absorb rainfall where it lands, rain gardens are cultivated, bowl-shaped depressions, about 3 to 7 inches deep, strategically located near patios, roofs, lawns and other runoff sources. Their soils—sometimes augmented with compost or sand to improve permeability—work like sponges to absorb and filter the water, allowing it to percolate slowly into the ground. Researchers have found that such gardens collect about 30 percent more water than conventional lawns. When filled with native plants, they can also act as magnets for birds, butterflies and bees.

 

 

Ideal Form and Function

Most rain gardens will help reduce flooding, but ideally they should be big enough to hold all runoff from sources such as downspouts. Bannerman says a downspout rain garden should be 15 to 20 percent of the size of the roof area for homeowners who have sandy soil, 25 to 35 percent for those with soil containing some clay and 30 to 40 percent for homes with less-porous, all-clay soil. Such gardens should be about twice as long (perpendicular to the runoff source) as they are wide.

“Plant selection is very important,” says Jan Satterthwaite, a Seattle landscape architect and team leader of a local NWF Community Wildlife Habitat^® project. She primarily uses plants native to the region that will thrive in wet and dry conditions and attract wildlife. Plants with deep fibrous roots provide the most cleaning and filtration benefits. Satterthwaite uses a mix of grasses and sedges, herbaceous flowering plants and native shrubs.

She has been designing projects for RainWise, a Seattle public utilities program that offers rebates averaging $4,000 to homeowners who install rain gardens and cisterns in areas where sewers overflow. Client Christina Burtner had sewer backups and flooding in her basement during storms. Satterthwaite put a 26-square-foot rain garden in Burtner’s yard using low-maintenance plants. “Not only has it solved our basement dampness and side-sewer woes,” says Burtner, “it also has added beauty to our property.”

 

 

Rain-Garden Tips

The following pointers can help you choose the best location and plants for your rain garden:

• For easier installation, look for flat areas and avoid steep slopes.

• Extend your downspouts or add rock-filled channels to direct roof runoff toward your garden.

• Construct the garden at least 10 feet away from your foundation to keep water from seeping into your basement.

• Don’t build directly over a septic system or utility lines.

• Avoid using an existing depression in your yard that constantly is damp or where water regularly pools, two indications that soil drainage at that spot is poor.

• Select a site that receives full or partial sun.

• For effective results, landscaping professionals suggest incorporating a mixture of deep-rooted native sedges, rushes and grasses with your flowering species (forbs).

• Select plants that bloom or produce berries at different times to provide continual habitat for wildlife. For names of appropriate native species, check with your local agricultural extension service or local native plant society.

For more natural gardening tips, visit www.nwf.org/nwfgarden.

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Mark Wexler is editor-at-large of National Wildlife magazine.

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Become an NWF Wildlife Gardener and sign up for our Garden for Wildlife™ newsletter. It's free and you will receive great gardening tips and learn how to certify your yard as a Certified Wildlife Habitat^® site or your community as part of NWF's Community Wildlife Habitat^® program.

 

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2015/Rain-Gardens.aspx

 

 

 

 

Bumblebees Are Being Bumped Off by Climate Change, Scientists Say

http://beneficialbugs.org/bugs/Bumblebee/bumble_bee.htm

 

by Alan Boyle

July 9, 2015

 

Scientists say wild bumblebee species are being squeezed into extinction by climate change in North America and Europe — so much so that some of them might need help from us humans to find safe havens.

Their conclusion, published in this week's issue of the journal Science, is based on an analysis of more than 423,000 archived observations of 67 bee species, going back to 1901.

The scientists expected to find that the species have moved northward in response to rising temperatures, as other species ranging from flowers to foxes have done.

That's not what they found. Yes, the bumblebee species dwindled or disappeared in warmer southern climes, retreating an average of about 190 miles (300 kilometers). And in mountainous regions the bees moved up to higher elevations — about 1,000 feet (300 meters) higher, on average. But they didn't move into cooler, higher-latitude regions.

For some reason, bumblebees are being caught in a "climate vise," said University of Ottawa biologist Jeremy Kerr, the lead author of the Science study.

Kerr and his colleagues tried to account for other factors that have been cited as bad for bees, ranging from neonicotinoids and other pesticides to changes in land use — but they said those factors don't explain the losses in the range of the species.

The scientists emphasized that the scenario for wild bumblebees is different from the problems faced by European honeybees.

The concern about honeybees focuses on colony collapse disorder, which has been linked to a host of factors including pathogens, pesticides and diversity loss. But the concern about bumblebees is just as serious, said study co-author Leif Richardson, a bee researcher from the University of Vermont.

Richardson pointed out that bumblebees play a key role in pollinating crops ranging from apples and blueberries to soybeans. "If we see declines in the diversity or abundance of bumblebees, we should expect to see lower crop yields, higher food costs, and perhaps lower food diversity," he told NBC News.

http://beneficialbugs.org/bugs/Bumblebee/bumble_bee.htm

Why bumblebees are bummed

The researchers suggested that bumblebees aren't as capable of coping with warmer temperatures as, say, butterflies, because bumblebees evolved in temperate regions of the world rather than tropical regions.

"You imagine a car that starts running out of coolant and starts blowing steam out the front of the hood. That's kind of like an analogy for what bumblebee species do when it gets too hot," Kerr told reporters.

So why aren't bumblebee species pushing farther northward into Canada, or showing up in more northerly regions of Europe? The reasons for that aren't fully clear: It may be that the plants on which the bumblebee species feed are lacking, Or it may be that the bee colonies have to be of a certain size to take root in new regions. Kerr noted that bumblebee species with larger colony sizes seemed to handle moving into new areas better.

About a third to a quarter of the bumblebee species are in decline, but some species "seem to be expanding their range," said York University's Sheila Colla, another co-author of the study. These include the common Eastern bumblebee in the United States — as well as the buff-tailed bumblebee in Europe, which Kerr called the "dandelion of the bumblebee world."

What is to be done?

The researchers said regular folks could help out the bumblebees by planting bee-friendly crops in their gardens and backyards — native wildflowers, bee balm and milkweed, for example, or even raspberries. Another way to boost the bees is to participate in BumbleBeeWatch.org, a citizen science project that keeps track of bee sightings in North America.

 

The study touches on the strategy of "assisted migration" — that is, transporting bumblebee colonies to cooler refuges. Kerr said conservation groups and government agencies will have to have a "thoughtful and quick conversation" about when and how to use such a strategy.

"We're playing with fire, and we are now going to begin paying some of those consequences," Kerr said. "If we're interested in conserving species like bumblebees for the future, it is possible that we will need to intervene in a significant and extensive way to help them adapt."

Richardson said assisted migration should be employed with extreme caution.

"We may have to do that, but if recent experience serves, there are perils that we engage in when we start moving species around," he told NBC News. Richardson pointed to the example of the European buff-tailed bumblebee, which was exported to Chile and Argentina to boost pollination but is now considered an extremely invasive species.

He said it would do no good to try saving species after species without doing something about our own species' greenhouse-gas emissions and the effect on global climate.

"To address the root cause of what's happening to the bumblebees, the answer is clear," Richardson said. "And it's as intractable as ever."

In addition to Kerr, Colla and Richardson, the authors of "Climate Change Impacts on Bumblebees Converge Across Continents" include Alana Pindar, Paul Galpern, Laurence Packer, Simon Potts, Stuart Roberts, Pierre Rasmont, Oliver Schweiger, David Wagner, Lawrence Gall, Derek Sikes and Alberto Pantoja.

For related videos and more stories go to:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/bumblebees-are-being-bumped-climate-change-scientists-say-n389041

 

 

 

 

Urban pollinators fly high along Oslo's flower-lined bee highway

The apiarian artery is the buzziest infrastructure project in Scandinavia.

 

By: Matt Hickman

July 1, 2015

 

"Excuse me fellow traveler, you wouldn't happen to know where the nearest filling station is, would you?" (Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Oslo, the Norwegian city with hot pink manhole covers and a serious garbage deficit, has embarked on an ambitious urban highway-building project complete with roadside lodging and filling stations aplenty. However, those traveling along said highway will primarily be making pit stops for pollen not petrol, nectar not bags of corn nuts. Shelter will be provided in the form of hives, not Holiday Inns. And as for tolls, since when have endangered insects that play an incredibly vital role in global food production been required to fork over a toll?

Oslo’s flower-strewn thoroughfare, a project described as the world’s first bee highway, differs from your run-of-the-mill wildlife corridor — you know, those highway-spanning bridges where, at any given moment, a bear, a moose and a family of chipmunks could be en voyage overhead.

Norway has those too, but Oslo’s urban biodiversity-fostering bee highway is decidedly less rigid, engineered. Like bees themselves, the burgeoning pollinator pike is gloriously busy, piecemeal, a bit all over the place in the best way possible. With traffic (ideally) moving east to west, the highway, in actuality, is a loose network of lush rooftop gardens, hive-laden terraces and balcony-bound pots overflowing with pollen-producing flowers that make up for an absence of bee-friendly spaces in park-starved areas of Norway's preternaturally tidy capital city.

With pollen-rich "feeding stations” situated roughly every 800 feet, The Guardian notes that the ultimate aim of the so-called Pollinatorpassasjer project is to “provide safe passage through the city.”

“We are constantly reshaping our environment to meet our needs, forgetting that other species also live in it,” explains Agnes Lyche Melvaer of ByBi (“Bee Town”), the environmental group spearheading the grassroots project. “To correct that we need to return places to them to live and feed.”

The highway itself is being "constructed" bit-by-bit by a mix of activists, apiarists, gardeners, government entities, businesses and homeowners. Key to this inaugural work of insect infrastructure — with all the potential new greenery involved, it also doubles as a snazzy city beautification project — is an interactive map in which interested participants can first identify areas along the route that are in desperate need of bee-appropriate food and lodging. From there, they can help build up the highway as they see fit, be in providing a safe nesting spot or an oversized pot filled with sunflowers.

“It will be easy to see barriers and obstacles on the map. The goal is to inspire people to fill these gaps,” Melvaer tells local paper Osloby.

 

Like any proper highway, Oslo's Pollinatorpassasjer includes a detailed map identifying bee-appropriate food and lodging. (Screenshot: Pollinatorpassasjer)

 

While hives are indeed encouraged along the Pollinatorpassasje, Melvaer points out that not all bees are social like the European honeybee. In fact, a majority of bees species are comprised of loners that would rather not hunker down in chaotic shared quarters with a few thousand compatriots. Along the bee highway, these bees require private accommodations. “Some bee species like to live in solitary rooms. They need small hollows like a crack in an old tree truck. It’s very important to have some old wood lying around.”

As noted by the Guardian, Norway’s bee population doesn’t face the same threat as in the United States and other European nations where rampant pesticide use, disease and other factors have led to alarming die-offs. Still, a third of Norway’s 200 wild bee species are considered endangered — a significant number considering that 30 to 40 percent of global food production is dependent on pollination.

So long as Norway’s urban bees don’t take any detours and keep moving in the right direction, they’ll find safe haven along Oslo's bee highway, a highway where signs of heavy congestion are nothing but a good thing — the more traffic the merrier.

Via [The Guardian], [The Local]

Read more: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/blogs/urban-pollinators-fly-high-along-oslos-flower-lined-bee-highway#ixzz3ef1xNz2p
 
    

 

 

Bees Find Better Habitat in Urban Jungle than Farm Country

6/16/2015 // By Patrick Fitzgerald

 

What do you think about when hear the word "pollinators?"

Images of honey bees or bumble bees come to mind for most. Many of us urban and suburbanites have an idyllic image of bees and butterflies in the countryside. Something like this…

 

Idyllic rural area. Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli via Flickr Creative Commons

 

Unfortunately, it more often looks like this…

 

Monoculture crops. Photo by Jan Tik via Flickr Creative Commons

 

A recent study published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B by scientists from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom found that land near towns supported greater insect diversity than those in rural areas. Lead researcher Dr. Deepa Senapathi explains that species have been declining in both urban and agricultural areas for years, but species declined further in rural areas. This is in part due to the increases in large expanses of monoculture. And this dynamic rings true in the U.S. as well with nearly 50% of America's land set aside as managed cropland, rangeland, pasture, or production forest land.

Dr. Deepa goes on to say, "While concreting over the countryside may appear to be bad news for nature, we've found that progressive urbanization may be much less damaging than intensive agriculture," she said.

 

Consider some of these pollinator gardens in our nations urban areas:

 

Creating pollinator gardens in Baltimore. Photo by Carolyn Millard

 

Students collect herbs on PS 41′s greenroof in Manhattan. Photo by Megan Westervelt

 

Native prairie in Chesterfield Central Park, MO. Photo from City of Chesterfield

  

A monarch butterfly feeds on nectar from goldenrod in Rhode Island. Photo donated by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Bernadette Banville

 

 Here in the U.S. there is a real movement underway in our urban and suburban areas to help provide habitat for our nation's smallest wildlife – pollinators.

 

One Million Pollinator Gardens 

The White House has launched a new national strategy to address the decline of honey bees and other pollinators.  In response to this strategy the National Wildlife Federation and our partners founded the National Pollinator Garden Network and launched the Million Pollinator Network Challenge with a goal of planting 1,000,000 pollinator gardens in urban and suburban areas by the end of 2016.

 

Cities and Communities Making a Difference

City governments are already stepping up to help pollinators, including the monarch butterfly.  St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay has been a champion for the monarch butterfly and launched a successful and growing Milkweeds for Monarchs program.  Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the Austin City Council recently passed a resolution to get more milkweed planted on city properties and launched a pollinator challenge.  Alpharetta, GA, is joining the Million Pollinator Challenge as well, encouraging its residents to create habitat within the community.

 

DC Inner City Outing volunteers Max and Corey. Photo by Kris Unger

 

Join the Movement

We need YOUR HELP to reverse the troubling decline of pollinators by creating pollinator habitat where you live, work, learn, play and/or worship.  Please join the 150,000+ Americans who are part of the National Wildlife Federation's Garden for Wildlife movement and access resources through Facebook, our Wildlife Promise blog and our website.

 

Certify your pollinator habitat so it is counted in the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge. Already certified? Then rally your entire neighborhood or city to get certified through the NWF Community Wildlife Habitat program.

 

WE NEED FARM COUNTRY TOO!

To reach the scale of habitat restoration needed to turn the tide for monarchs and other pollinator species, we will need cooperation from urban, suburban, and rural landowners and land managers. We must all do our part. Combining our work in urban and suburban areas with restoration of habitat on public lands; utility, highway and railroad right of ways; hobby farms; stream buffers; edges of crop fields; rangelands; and on the 26 million acre Conservation Reserve Program; we can provide the acres of habitat needed to help insects that pollinate our food crops and those in steep decline, such as the monarch.

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from Wildlife Promise

 

 

 

 

10 Ways to Save Pollinators

6/5/2015 // By David Mizejewski

 

Pollinators are in decline worldwide. You can help save them. Photo Credit: Julie Chen

 

Pollinators are in trouble. These important wildlife move from plant to plant while searching for protein-rich pollen or high-energy nectar to eat. As they go, they are dusted by pollen and move it to the next flower, fertilizing the plant and allowing it to reproduce and form seeds, berries, fruits and other plant foods that form the foundation of the food chain for other species—including humans.

Bees are the most important pollinators, but over 100,000 invertebrates—including butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, and beetles—and over 1,000 mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, act as pollinators.

Unfortunately, pollinators are in decline worldwide. Habitat loss, invasive species, parasites, and pesticides are largely to blame.

Save Pollinators

You can help save pollinators. Here are ten ways you can directly help pollinators and support National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to protect and restore these critically important wildlife species.

1. Become a Wildlife Gardener
Join NWF’s growing movement of Wildlife Gardeners who are have made the choice to nurture their own small piece of the Earth–their own yards and gardens–with the needs of wildlife like pollinators in mind. It’s as simple as subscribing to our free Garden for Wildlife e-newsletter. Each month, we’ll send out NWF’s expert tips and projects on how to attract birds, butterflies, pollinators and other “backyard wildlife” to guide you as you become an expert yourself.

Creating a wildlife garden for pollinator starts with native plants. Photo Credit: John Magee.

2. Plant Natives
Native plants co-evolved with the native wildlife of your region. Native plants form the foundation of habitat for pollinators by providing them with pollen and nectar for food, cover from the elements and predators, and places where their young can grow. The best way to attract beautiful butterflies, busy bees, speedy hummingbirds and other pollinators is to fill your yard with native plants.

3. Gives Bees Nesting Places
There are 4,000 bee species native to North America (the honey bee is a European import) and most of those don’t form hives. Instead, individual female bees lay their eggs in tunnels in decaying wood or in sandy soil. You can offer such nesting spots by leaving tree snags on your property, by leaving bare batches of sandy soil, or by building or buying whimsical native bee houses.

Add bee houses like these to give native bees a place to raise their young. Photo Credit: David Mizejewski.

4. Avoid Pesticides
Bees are our most important pollinators, and they are insects. So are butterflies like the monarch. Using insecticides will kill these insects. Herbicides will kill important native plants such as milkweed that pollinators rely upon as a food source and a place to raise young. Make the commitment to avoid using chemicals and to maintain your garden in a natural, organic way.

5. Plant Milkweed
The iconic monarch butterfly has declined by over 90 percent in just twenty years. One of the main causes of this decline is a lack of milkweed, the species’ only caterpillar host plant. Without milkweed, monarchs can’t complete their lifecycle and populations plummet. By planting milkweed in your own yard, garden or neighborhood, you’ll not only attract these beautiful butterflies, you’ll be providing crucial habitat that will allow their caterpillars to survive. Find out what milkweed is native to where you live and how to get it.

Swamp Milkweed. Photo Credit: Tom Potterfield, Flickr Creative Commons

6. Adopt a Monarch
You can symbolically adopt a monarch butterfly and directly support NWF’s work to save this declining pollinator. We’ll put your adoption purchase to use immediately to support our work to protect and restore monarchs and other vulnerable wildlife. We’re filling thousands of backyards with nectar plants and native milkweed—the one and only host plant for monarch caterpillars—and working alongside national partners to bring monarchs back from the brink. Adopt a monarch today.

Adopt a monarch butterfly and support pollinator conservation.

7. Protect Grasslands
America’s native grasslands are critically important for pollinators such as bees and monarch butterflies. Our grasslands are filled with native plants that offer nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and a wide variety of pollinators. They also provide milkweed, the only host plant for monarch caterpillars. Today, more than 90 percent of native grasslands have been converted to cropland and development. Grasslands are disappearing faster than any other ecosystem in North America, and that’s a big problem for pollinators.  Join NWF in fighting to save grasslands for monarchs.

8. Join NWF Affiliate Efforts in Your State
Eleven of NWF’s state affiliates are active partners in the Garden for Wildlife program, teaching people how to create habitat for bees, monarchs and other pollinators. They offer regional expertise and resources, offering native milkweed seeds, running monarch tagging and citizen science efforts and even working on legislative solutions. Joining these efforts is a great way to get involved on the local level. Find out if your state’s NWF affiliate is working to protect pollinators.

9. Post a Yard Sign
When you create a pollinator garden and certify it with National Wildlife Federation, you become part of the exclusive group of people who can post a Certified Wildlife Habitat sign. The sign is a wonderful way of letting your friends and neighbors know about all the hard work you’ve done to make a difference for wildlife like pollinators. Posting the sign is also a grassroots way of spreading the message that each of us can make a difference by creating a pollinator-friendly garden or landscape and inspiring others to follow your example. Certify now and get your sign, or if you’re already certified you can order a sign here.

When you certify your yard or garden you can post the exclusive Certified Wildlife Habitat sign to share your accomplishment and help spread the wildlife gardening message.

10. Spread the Word on Social Media
You can amplify National Wildlife Federation’s call to action by spreading the message about the plight of bees, monarch butterflies and other declining pollinators on social media. Take a minute to share this post on Facebook, Twitter and your other social media networks. That simple act can help take the message to millions more people than we can reach alone. Be sure to tag our Facebook and Twitter pages too!

Take the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge

The National Wildlife Federation is joining with dozens of conservation and gardening organizations as well as seed groups to form the National Pollinator Garden Network and launch a new nationwide campaign – the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge.

You can participate the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge by turning your yard or garden into a Certified Wildlife Habitat via National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife program.  It’s as simple as providing food, water, cover and places to raise young for pollinators like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Then visit our website to certify your habitat.

http://blog.nwf.org/2015/06/10-ways-to-save-pollinators/