Bigger than Bees: Celebrate Pollinator Week June 20-26, 2022
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The City of Madison Engineering and Parks Divisions invite the community to “bee” proactive with supporting pollinators during National Pollinator Week, June 20-26, 2022.
Pollinator Week is an annual celebration in support of pollinator health, according to the Pollinator Partnership. It is a time to raise awareness for pollinators and spread the word about what communities can do to protect them.
Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food, according to Pollinator.org. They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce.
Pollination is when a pollen grain moves from the anther (male part) of a flower to the stigma (female part). 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 more commonly, by the movement of foraging animals such as bees. Animals that cause pollination to happen or “pollinators” account for up to 80 percent of pollination.
‘Bee’ Proactive
Recognizing the importance of pollinators to our ecosystem, we use a number of strategies to help protect and enhance their habitat. In City Parks, we establish and manage diverse grassland habitats, including native tallgrass prairie plantings in non-turf areas, as well as plant and maintain landscape beds throughout the park system to provide continuity of blooming and forage sources various pollinators. You can learn more on the Parks Land Management website.
The City does a number of things to support pollinators such as:
- Participate as a Bee City USA
- Plant Native Plants
- Use an Integrated Pest Management approach to control invasive plants
- Create new educational pollinator plantings
- Increase native tree and shrub diversity plantings
- Hand-pull weed species from landscape beds
- Properly timed “spot” mowing in larger managed meadows, which account for approximately one quarter of the 4,000 acres of general parkland that does not include conservation parks or golf courses.
Learn more about pollinators on the City of Madison Engineering Website and check out the pollinator videos as our crews, explain a few things that can help you support pollinators.
VIDEO: Pollinator Pointers: What are Pollinators?
VIDEO: Pollinator Pointers: Plant Natives!
VIDEO: Pollinator Pointers: Powerhouse Plants: Milkweed
VIDEO: Pollinator Pointers: Early Blooming Species
VIDEO: Pollinator Pointers: Native Grasses
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