Problem: In the past, native bees and feral honey bees could meet all of a farmer’s pollination needs for orchards, berry patches, squash and melons, vegetable seed, sunflowers, and other insect-pollinated crops. These farms were relatively small and close to areas of natural habitat that harbored adequate numbers of pollinators to accomplish the task that now requires imported colonies of honey bees. Nearby natural areas also served as a ready source of new pollinators that could re-colonize farms an...

Action: The purpose of these guidelines is to provide information about native bees and their habitat requirements so that farmers can manage the land around their fields to provide the greatest advantage for these crop pollinators. These guidelines will help growers and conservationists:   understand how simple changes to farm practices can benefit native pollinat...

Problem: The quality and quantity of our Nation’s conservation corridors have declined for the last several decades. Natural corridors are frequently squeezed by adjacent land uses or severed by roads, utilities, dams, or other types of human development. Narrow and segmented corridors are less effective as travel lanes for wildlife dispersal and other ecological functions. Hundreds of miles of fence rows, windbreaks, and other planted corridors are removed annually to accommodate changing agricultura...

Action: How corridors are arranged and connected within the larger landscape context determine their wildlife value. This principle provides land managers with a tool to manage wildlife species diversity effectively. The cumulative effect of corridor arrangement influences wildlife population dynamics. Designing corridor systems is a task of creating strategic configurations across ownerships and land uses. The objective is to restore targeted ecological functions at watershed scales.   The material ...