Pollinator Resources

As anyone who has ever grown a vegetable garden in their backyard can tell you, it’s a lot of work. From preparing the beds or containers, to selecting and planting your seeds or seedlings, to watering, weeding, harvesting and processing, growing your own backyard vegetable garden can be like adding a part-time job for 5-6 months each year. But what if I told you all of our efforts to produce fresh, homegrown veggies to feed our families or grow a prize-winning zucchini for the fair would be wasted if it wasn’t for the army of tiny helpers that we so seldom notice – our pollinators.

Bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats and other critters make up the vast “workforce” of pollinators who carry pollen where it needs to go, enabling plants to produce the fruits, vegetables and seeds that we eat. From backyard gardeners to the industrial-scale farms across the U.S., we all rely on the pollinator workforce. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), ¾ of flowering plants and 35% of food crops around the world are dependent on pollinators to reproduce, and scientists estimate that one in every three bites of food we eat exists because of pollinators.¹

You may have read that many of our key pollinators, like bees, bats, butterflies and birds, have seen significant population declines in recent years. Pesticide use, habitat loss and fragmentation, diseases and climate change are all factors contributing to pollinator declines. If these losses continue, there’s the potential we could lose entire species from our pollinator workforce, like the endangered rusty patched bumblebee² or monarch butterflies³, to name just two.  

We can do something to help. Problems of this magnitude may feel too big for any of us as individuals to fix, but this is not the case with saving our pollinators. One of the keys to saving our pollinators is right in our own backyards – no matter how big or how small! You can make a difference for local pollinators by planting your own pollinator garden in your yard, meadow or even in pots on a balcony or patio. Explore the links below to get started!

1. The Importance of Pollinators. U.S. Department of Agriculture website: usda.gov/about-usda/general-information/initiatives-and-highlighted-programs/peoples-garden/importance-pollinators. Accessed May 12, 2025.
2. Saving the rusty patch bumblebee – one garden at a time by Georgia Parham. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website: fws.gov/story/saving-rusty-patch-bumble-bee. Accessed May 12, 2025.
3. You can help save the monarch. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website: https://www.fws.gov/initiative/pollinators/save-monarch. Accessed May 12, 2025.