[MPWG] The Pollinator Partnership Celebrates Pollinator Week - June 24-30, 2007

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

The Pollinator Partnership Celebrates Pollinator Week - June 24-30, 2007 

What's is all about?
June 24-30, 2007 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the U.S. 
Senate (S.Res. 580) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

What is the Pollinator Partnership?
The Pollinator Partnership, sponsored by the North American Pollinator 
Protection Campaign (NAPPC) and the Coevolution Institute, promotes 
projects that help people, plants and pollinators. One project is their 
website (http://www.pollinator.org/index.html), which provides pollinator 
information for consumers, gardeners, educators, resource managers, 
producers and farmers.

For Pollinator Handouts and Events, see: 
http://www.pollinator.org/pollinator_week.htm

What is PCA doing for pollinators?
Here is a sampling of pollinator activities supported by the Plant 
Conservation Alliance (PCA), its Working Groups and its Member Agencies...

>Funding Conservation and Information Sharing through the Native Plant 
Conservation Initiative
In partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), PCA 
promotes conservation and information sharing through the Native Plant 
Conservation Initiative grant program, which focuses on declining native 
plant species and communities throughout North America. Since the 
relationship between plants and their pollinators are irrevocably 
intertwined, these projects have also helped to support pollinators.  Here 
are examples of projects from 2006.

Pollinator Friendly Plantings (CA)
Grantee: Coevolution Institute
The project will create a template for brochures to provide name, 
description, growing recommendations for native plants and their 
pollinators for gardeners, conservationists and land managers. Brochures 
will be produced for 4-6 ecoregions.

Willamette River Butterfly Meadow (OR)
Grantee: Walama Restoration Project
The project will restore upland prairie on three acres by using four weed 
control techniques and promote the expansion of a native nursery for local 
seed. Youth volunteers will propagate plants and monitor pollinators and 
plants. 

To see more on these and other Native Plant Conservation Initiative 
projects, go to: http://www.nps.gov/plants/nfwf/index.htm

>Medicinal Plant Conservation Fact Sheets
In concert with the Medicinal Plant Working Group, the IUCN-SSC-Medicinal 
Plant Specialist Group and the North American Pollinator Protection 
Campaign (NAPPC) are collaborating to produce five fact sheets that 
provide information on the status and conservation of medicinal plants and 
their pollinators.  These short, easy to read fact sheets are targeted to 
practitioners, consumers and the general public, and are available online. 
 The fact sheets produced through this collaboration thus far are:
·       Black cohosh [
http://www.plantconservationwiki.org/wiki/images/4/4b/Fact_sheet-Cimicifuga_racemosa.pdf
] 
·       Goldenseal [
http://www.plantconservationwiki.org/wiki/images/f/f8/Fact_sheet-Hydrastis_canadensis.pdf
] 
·       Osha - Under development 

>Alien Plant Working Group
The Alien Plant Working Group includes pollinator conservation 
perspectives as part of its work to provide information on and combat the 
spread of invasive plant species. For instance, in assessing the impact of 
invasive alien plants (http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/bkgd.htm), APWG 
notes:
Over 1,000 exotic plant species have been identified as a threat to our 
native flora and fauna as a result of their aggressive, invasive 
characteristics.  Some exotics...contain toxins that may be lethal to 
certain animals. For example, garlic mustard has been found to contain 
compounds that are lethal to a native butterfly species.  
[The] ecological impacts of invasive plants and includes the loss of 
habitat for native insects, birds, and other wildlife; and, disruption of 
native plant-animal associations such as pollination, seed dispersal and 
host-plant relationships 
Invasive alien plants disrupt insect-plant associations necessary for seed 
dispersal of native plants and native plant-pollinator relationships; 
reduce and eliminate host plants for native insects and other wildlife; 
replace nutritious native plant foods with lower quality sources  

How are PCA Member Agencies participating in Pollinator Week?

>Bureau of land Management 
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will also sign a memorandum with the 
Coevolution Institute during National Pollinator Week, paving the way for 
awareness and action on the 258 million acres of U.S. land that it 
oversees -- 40 percent of all land managed by the Federal government -- 
will support pollinator protection.
See: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070625/0270138.html

>Department of Defense
Department of Defense to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the 
Coevolution Institute during National Pollinator Week, June 24-30.
See: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070625/0270138.html

>Department of Interior
To see a sample of DOI's research and partnerships that benefit 
pollinators and their habitat, see People, Land and Water: 
http://www.peoplelandandwater.gov/index.cfm and search on "Pollinator".

>USDA Forest Service
See their gateway to pollinator information at: www.fs.fed.us/ 

>U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The FWS is proud to announce its new Pollinator Portal at: 
http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/Issues/Pollinators.cfm
Additional information about FWS and Pollinator Week is avilable at: See: 
http://www.fws.gov/ (Scroll down to the butterfly article!)

Additional federal involvement

>US Postal Service 
The USPS unveils new stamps featuring pollinators and the plants they need 
to survive!
For more information, see: The Dirt: New stamps feature bird and bees - 
and plants (MN Star Tribune)
http://www.startribune.com/10180/story/1266904.html


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