Pollinator Conservation: Saving Bees and Butterflies in the North Coast

Imagine a world without pollinators.

This future world would be without most fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and without the species that depend on fruits, nuts and vegetables--which is most terrestrial life.

Pollinators are essential to human life. The ecological service they provide is necessary for the reproduction of over 85% of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species.  These same pollinators also service native plants integral to the survival of most of our wild animals in Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties. The chain of all terrestrial life depends on these basic services to feed the invertebrates and vertebrates that make up our world. 

Currently, our bumblebees and other native bees are declining: The Crotch, Franklin’s, Suckley Cuckoo and Western bumble bees that filled our lands on the North Coast are considered threatened.  Butterflies are dwindling too with the Behren's Silverspot and Monarch butterfly populations disappearing at alarming rates. We can save them by taking action to connect pollinator corridors, ensure safe nesting areas, and expand the presence of necessary plant life on which they depend. Anyone can help with just a few simple actions.  By planting forage flowers and other habitat plants for pollinators in safe patches, we can all help bring them back..

Pollinator Habitat Restoration

Conservation Works' pollinator conservation programs restore and expand pollinator habitat through community environmental education engagement combined with on-the-ground "Take Action" conservation projects.  

Our community pollinator planting projects are open to all ages at all levels of knowledge.  We work with young and old to help provide year-round forage flowers and safe pollinator habitats in both urban and rural areas.  For nearly a decade our pollinator habitats have been enhancing native plant communities, promoting healthy wildlife populations, and supporting our agricultural systems.

In 2020 we joined the Bee Bold Alliance, a project of Pollinator Protectors of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, to add to our cumulative efforts.   When you purchase Bee Bold Coffee online here, we receive 20% of your purchase price to help fund our habitat planting programs.    

Our Pollinator Conservation Activities

  • Bees

    Honeybees and the over 1,600 species of native bees are essential to our farms and natural environment. Some native bees are even better pollinators than the honeybee, but in many places, these essential pollinator services are at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases. Watch A Ghost in the Making short film about the first bee on the endangered species list.

    For nearly a decade, Conservation Works' Pollinator Patches program has been planting resilient habitats with multi-season forage which can lessen the struggle of bees to survive.

    Contact oona@conservationworksnc.org to find out how you can help protect our pollinators by planting a Pollinator Habitat Garden at your farm, school or community garden.

  • Monarchs

    Our pollinator habitat plantings nurture migrating Monarch butterflies as they travel through overwintering sites along the California coast.

    In 2021, Conservation Works partnered with Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District and others to help bring back Monarch populations by planting native milkweed species and nectar plants to support migrating Monarchs in our pollinator habitat planting projects.

    Contact alina@conservationworksnc.org to find out how you can help protect our monarchs by planting milkweed and nectar plants at your farm, school or community garden.

  • Photo Credit Clint Pogue/NFWS

    Behren's Silverspot Butterfly

    The Behren’s Silverspot Butterfly has been listed as an endangered species since 1997, and populations continue to dwindle. This beautiful butterfly is our own local butterfly, only living in coastal Sonoma and Mendocino counties. This butterfly survives in coastal terrace prairie/grassland habitat that contains its caterpillar’s host plant--the western early blue violet--along with adult nectar sources, and suitable adult courtship and egg-laying areas.

    Conservation Works is partnering with Wynn Coastal Planning & Biology, the National Fish and Wildlife Service, California State Parks, and others to help recover this butterfly.

    Contact oona@conservationworksn.org to find out how you can get involved. Photo Credit ,Clint Pogue/NFWS

Plant Food for Pollinators in the form of abundant flowering plants that provide access to pollen and nectar throughout the growing season. Use these helpful  Ecoregional Planting Guides to zoom in on your ZIP code for a list of plants for your yard. More planting information can be found at: Plant List from Xerces, Native Seed Directory

Tired of pulling dandelions? You can allow dandelions and clover to live longer in your yard.  Typically considered weeds, these plants provide important early blooming resources for bumble bees. 

Provide access to shelter and nesting sites including

  • Specific host plants for butterflies like planting milkweed for Monarch butterflies or Western Dog Violet for Behren's Spotted butterfly--grow native milkweeds for pollinators with this useful guide. Grow native milkweed and nectar plants , Monarch habitat needs

  • Pithy stems and dead wood for cavity-nesting bees, and bare earth for ground-nesting bees. You can also help your yard be wild to encourage Bumble bees which like to nest in hollow logs (great for picturesque landscaping), spaces in rock walls, under bunch grasses, in birds' nest boxes, etc. Check out this nesting and overwintering guidance from the Xerxes Society

Resources

Make a Difference in Your Yard

While each pollinator has a specific need to support each stage of its lifecycle, they all need a high-quality habitat that provides an abundance of flowers, shelter and nesting sites, and protection from pesticides.

Provide Protection from pesticides: Many herbicides, fungicides and almost all insecticides can kill non-target beneficial insects including pollinators directly by treating areas of a yard that pollinators frequent or indirectly as habitat becomes degraded and plants take up the chemicals and pass them to bees and butterflies feeding on the plants.

Provide access to water: Let your imagination flow as you create a small, shallow Zen-like freshwater beach for your pollinator friends as butterflies often need mud or dirty water to satisfy their mineral needs while bees need water to drink

Become a Community Scientist with your Cell Phone:

  • You can help document how and where Monarch butterflies are living by uploading to the Integrated Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program 

  • Plan for Fall with Food and Habitat Resources - Fall is a time when you might embrace the Leave the Leaves campaign  and help out even more