Saving the Pollinators, We Can’t Live Without Them

Pollination is an essential ecological survival function. Without pollinators, the human race and all of earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive. Of the 1,400 crop plants grown around the world, i.e., those that produce all of our food and plant-based industrial products, almost 80% require pollination by animals. Visits from bees and other pollinators also result in larger, more flavorful fruits and higher crop yields. In the United States alone, pollination of agricultural crops is valued at 10 billion dollars annually. Globally, pollination services are likely worth more than 3 trillion dollars. More than half of the world’s diet of fats and oils come from animal-pollinated plants (oil palm, canola, sunflowers, etc.). More than 150 food crops in the U.S. depend on pollinators, including almost all fruit and grain crops. The USDA estimated that crops dependent on pollination are worth more than $10 billion per year. Click here to download the brochure: The Simple Truth: We Can’t Live Without Them!  Pollinators.org has a number of programs and informational publications to help you get started.  It is as easy as planting a garden, using the organizations Native Pollinator Garden Recipe Cards. The cards are regionally specific Native Pollinator Garden Recipe Cards and are designed with easy to follow guidelines for creating home pollinator gardens.  These gardens will provide diverse and colorful floral displays and resources across growing seasons. The cards provide guidelines for smaller spaces, approximately 3’ x 6’; however, we encourage expanding your pollinator gardens over time by including other valuable habitat resources such as native flowering shrubs and/or trees, native bunch grasses, and sedges. Native shrubs and trees provide some of the earliest spring pollen and nectar resources available to pollinators and many serve as host plants for Lepidoptera species (butterflies and moths). Bunch grasses and sedges, in addition to residual woody debris and leaf litter provide necessary nesting and overwintering habitat. Check out local plant sales sponsored by native plant societies, nature centers, and conservation districts.  One is coming up here at Pleasant Hill Community Church or check out the sale in May at the UT Extension Service of Cumberland County. Pleasant Hill Community Church, United Church of Christ, located at 67 Church Drive, Pleasant Hill, TN.  We are an Open and Affirming, Whole Earth, Global Mission, Just Peace congregation of the United Church of Christ.  With roots in the post-Civil War work of the American Missionary Association and deep connections with Uplands Village, a UCC-affiliated retirement community here in Pleasant Hill, Pleasant Hill Community Church remains a vibrant center for social justice work and theological exploration.