Bees & the Environment: Conservation, Pollinator Decline & What You Can Do

One out of every three bites of food you eat exists because a pollinator visited a flower. That apple at breakfast, the coffee beans roasted for your morning cup, the almonds in your granola — all depend on bees, butterflies, bats, and other pollinators doing the quiet, essential work of moving pollen from one blossom to another. It is a relationship that has evolved over more than 100 million years, and it is under serious strain.

The numbers tell an unsettling story. A comprehensive 2019 review published in Biological Conservation found that 40% of insect species worldwide are in decline, with a third of those now endangered. Insect biomass is dropping by roughly 2.5% per year in many regions, which translates to a loss of about 3% of species per decade. Among pollinators specifically, the picture is equally concerning: managed honey bee colonies in the United States have declined from 6 million in the 1940s to roughly 2.7 million today, while many wild bee species face habitat destruction, pesticide exposure, and the cascading effects of a warming climate.

But here is the part that often gets lost in the headlines: this is not a done deal. Unlike many environmental crises that feel abstract and remote, pollinator decline is something individuals, communities, and policymakers can address with concrete, measurable actions — and many already are. Beekeepers, gardeners, farmers, and city planners across the country are making changes that add up to real habitat restoration and real risk reduction for pollinators. This guide lays out the science behind the decline, explains what is working, and gives you a practical roadmap for making a difference, whether you manage fifty hives or a window box of lavender.

The Pollinator Crisis

The Numbers Behind the Decline

The term "pollinator crisis" is not hyperbole — it is a data-backed reality that researchers have been documenting for decades. The 2019 global assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reported that 75% of global food crops depend at least partially on animal pollination. The economic value of that pollination service is staggering: estimates range from $235 billion to $577 billion annually worldwide, according to the IPBES report and subsequent analyses by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

In the United States alone, honey bees contribute approximately $15 billion per year to agricultural output through increased yields and quality of crops like almonds, apples, blueberries, cherries, and squash. Wild native bees provide an estimated $3 billion or more in additional pollination services, and for some crops — tomatoes, eggplant, and certain berries — native bees are significantly more efficient pollinators per flower visit than honey bees.

The crops most at risk from pollinator decline include:

Crop	Pollinator Dependence	Annual U.S. Value
Almonds	100% (honey bees)	$12.4 billion
Apples	90% (honey bees + wild bees)	$3.6 billion
Blueberries	90% (wild bees primary)	$1.1 billion
Cherries	80% (honey bees)	$920 million
Squash & Pumpkins	80% (squash bees)	$370 million
Coffee	30-40% (wild bees)	Global: $20+ billion

The almond industry is the single largest user of commercial pollination services in the world. Each February, roughly 2 million honey bee colonies — more than 70% of all commercial colonies in the U.S. — are trucked to California's Central Valley to pollinate 1.3 million acres of almond orchards. If pollinator populations continue to decline, this concentration of demand on an already-stressed honey bee population becomes increasingly precarious.

What "Decline" Actually Looks Like

Pollinator decline is not a single event — it is a collection of pressures that interact and compound. For managed honey bees, the annual colony loss survey conducted by the Bee Informed Partnership has consistently shown winter losses of 30-45% over the past decade, well above the 10-15% threshold that beekeepers historically considered acceptable. Summer losses, which were once rare, now routinely exceed 20%.

For wild bees, the picture is harder to quantify because most species are not monitored systematically. But the best available data is concerning. A 2021 study in Science found that from 2008 to 2015, bumble bee populations declined by an average of 46% in North America relative to baseline data from the early 20th century. The rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2017 — the first wild bee to receive federal protection. Once found across 28 states and portions of Canada, its range has contracted to roughly 13 states and its population has fallen by an estimated 87%.

💡 Key distinction: Honey bee "decline" is about colony losses and beekeeper economics. Wild bee "decline" is about species extinction. Both matter, but the solutions are not always the same.

Causes of Decline

There is no single culprit behind pollinator decline. Instead, researchers point to a convergence of five major stressors that interact in ways that amplify each other's effects.

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

The conversion of diverse landscapes — meadows, prairies, hedgerows, wetlands — into monoculture agriculture and suburban development is the single largest driver of pollinator decline globally. The United States has lost more than 99% of its native tallgrass prairie, which once covered 170 million acres across the Midwest and provided critical forage and nesting habitat for hundreds of bee species.

Urbanization compounds the problem by fragmenting remaining habitat into isolated patches that may be too small or too far apart to support viable pollinator populations. A study in Ecology Letters found that wild bee abundance and species richness decline significantly when natural habitat within 1-2 kilometers of a site drops below 30% of the landscape.

Monoculture agriculture — vast fields of a single crop — creates "food deserts" for pollinators. A 500-acre cornfield may provide pollen for a few days during tasseling, but offers nothing for the remaining 50 weeks of the year. The loss of diverse flowering plants along field edges, fence lines, and roadsides means fewer pollen and nectar sources during the critical periods when bees need them most.

Pesticides

The class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids has received the most attention — and for good reason. Introduced in the 1990s, neonicotinoids (including imidacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam) are now the most widely used insecticides in the world. They are systemic, meaning they are absorbed into all plant tissues, including pollen and nectar, where foraging bees encounter them.

The European Union banned the outdoor use of three major neonicotinoids in 2018 based on evidence that even at very low concentrations — parts per billion — they cause sublethal effects in bees, including:

Impaired navigation and homing ability
Reduced foraging efficiency and learning capacity
Weakened immune response, increasing vulnerability to pathogens
Decreased queen fecundity and colony growth

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken a more piecemeal approach. In 2024, the EPA finalized new label restrictions for certain neonicotinoid products to protect bees, including prohibitions on application when bees are foraging and when plants are in bloom. However, neonicotinoids remain widely used on corn, soybeans, cotton, and many ornamental plants.

Beyond neonicotinoids, other pesticide classes also pose risks. Pyrethroids and organophosphates can cause acute bee kills when applied during foraging hours. Fungicides, once thought benign for bees, have been shown to amplify the toxicity of insecticides and alter the gut microbiome that helps bees metabolize toxins.

Climate Change

Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns disrupt pollinator-plant relationships in ways that are difficult to predict. The most well-documented impact is phenological mismatch — the timing of flower blooming and pollinator emergence drift apart because they respond to different environmental cues.

A study in Current Biology found that spring-blooming plants in the northeastern U.S. are advancing their flowering time by an average of 1.5 days per decade in response to warming temperatures, while some spring-emerging bees are advancing by only 0.5 days per decade. This mismatch means that bees may emerge after peak bloom, reducing the food available to them and the pollination services plants receive.

Climate change also compresses the geographic ranges of bumble bees. A 2020 study in Science found that North American bumble bees have lost an average of 50 kilometers from the southern edge of their historic range over the past century, but have been slow to expand northward — resulting in a net range contraction of roughly 7% per decade.

Parasites and Diseases

For managed honey bees, the parasitic mite Varroa destructor remains the single greatest biotic threat. Introduced to the U.S. in the late 1980s, Varroa feeds on the fat bodies of developing bee pupae and transmits a suite of debilitating viruses, including Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). Unchecked Varroa infestations will kill a honey bee colony within 1-2 years.

Nosema, a microsporidian gut parasite, affects both honey bees and wild bees. Nosema ceranae has been linked to increased colony mortality and reduced foraging lifespan. In wild bumble bees, the closely related Nosema bombi has been associated with population declines in several species.

Pathogen spillover — the transmission of diseases from managed honey bees to wild bee populations — is an emerging concern. Research has shown that viruses such as DWV and Black Queen Cell Virus can be shared between honey bees and wild bees when they visit the same flowers. Commercially reared bumble bees used in greenhouse pollination can also introduce pathogens to wild bumble bee populations.

Invasive Species

Invasive plants can outcompete native wildflowers, reducing the diversity and quality of forage available to pollinators. Species like garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) can dominate landscapes, providing abundant but often nutritionally inferior nectar and pollen.

Invasive insects pose direct threats as well. The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina), established in parts of Europe, preys on honey bees at hive entrances and can destroy colonies. It was detected in the U.S. for the first time in Georgia in 2023, and monitoring efforts are ongoing to determine whether it has become established.

Honey Bees vs Wild Pollinators

This distinction matters more than most people realize, and getting it wrong can lead to conservation efforts that help one group while neglecting — or even harming — the other.

Why Honey Bees Matter

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the workhorses of commercial agriculture. Their value lies in three characteristics:

Colony size: A healthy honey bee colony contains 40,000-60,000 workers — vastly more than any wild bee species.
Communication: Honey bees perform waggle dances to recruit nestmates to productive flower patches, concentrating foraging effort where it is needed.
Manageability: Colonies can be transported to crops during bloom, providing pollination services on demand.

Without managed honey bees, the production of almonds, apples, blueberries, cherries, and dozens of other crops would plummet. Honey bees are also remarkable generalists, visiting an enormous range of flower types and contributing to the pollination of both crops and wild plants.

Why Wild Pollinators Matter

Wild bees — which include roughly 4,000 species in North America alone — are not redundant with honey bees. In many cases, they are more effective pollinators on a per-visit basis. Bumble bees perform "buzz pollination" (sonication) that honey bees cannot, which is essential for tomatoes, eggplant, and blueberries. Squash bees (Peponapis species) emerge before dawn to pollinate squash and pumpkin flowers, often completing the job before honey bees are even active. Mason bees and leafcutter bees are vastly more efficient pollinators of apples and cherries than honey bees on a bee-for-bee basis.

Wild bees also maintain relationships with native plants that honey bees, as an introduced species from Europe, cannot replicate. Some native plants have evolved flower shapes, bloom times, or pollen chemistry that are specifically adapted to particular wild bee species. Lose the bee, and the plant loses its pollinator.

⚠️ Common misconception: "Saving the bees" does not mean only saving honey bees. Honey bees are not at risk of extinction — they are managed livestock with a beekeeper responsible for their welfare. Wild bees face genuine extinction risk, and they need different conservation strategies.

Why Helping Honey Bees Alone Is Not Enough

Focusing exclusively on honey bee conservation can actually create problems for wild pollinators. Honey bees are formidable competitors. A single colony can collect enough nectar and pollen in a day to produce several pounds of honey — resources that are then unavailable to wild bees foraging in the same area. Research published in The Journal of Applied Ecology found that honey bee presence at high densities can reduce wild bee foraging success and reproductive output by 20-50%.

The most effective conservation strategies address the needs of both managed and wild pollinators simultaneously. This means ensuring abundant, diverse forage so that competition is minimized, providing nesting habitat for wild bees (which honey bees do not need, since they live in managed hives), and reducing pesticide exposure for all pollinators.

What Beekeepers Can Do

As a beekeeper, you are in a unique position to influence the pollinator landscape — both through how you manage your own colonies and through the example you set in your community.

Planting for Forage Gaps

Most beekeepers know that early spring and late fall are the leanest times for forage. Nectar flows often peak in mid-summer when wildflowers and agricultural crops are in bloom, but bees can struggle to find enough food in March-April and September-November. Planting specifically to fill these gaps is one of the most impactful things you can do.

Early spring forage (March-May):

Willows (Salix species) — one of the earliest and most reliable pollen sources
Maples (Acer species) — abundant pollen in early spring
Crocus, snowdrops, and winter aconite — early nectar sources
Redbud (Cercis canadensis) — nectar and pollen
Fruit trees (apple, cherry, plum) — critical spring nectar flow

Late summer and fall forage (August-November):

Goldenrod (Solidago species) — major fall nectar source
Asters (Symphyotrichum species) — late pollen and nectar
Buckwheat — excellent late summer cover crop and nectar source
Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) — late summer nectar
Sedum/stonecrop — fall nectar, drought-tolerant

Reducing Chemical Use in Your Own Yard

If you treat your lawn and garden with standard consumer pesticides, you may be exposing your own bees — and your neighbors' pollinators — to harmful chemicals. A 2019 study by the Botanic Gardens Conservation International found that 50% of "bee-friendly" plants sold at major garden centers contained neonicotinoid residues, even when they were not labeled as treated.

Practical steps:

Eliminate cosmetic pesticide use. Lawns do not need insecticides to look good. Dandelions and clover are not enemies — they are among the first and most important spring food sources for bees.
Use targeted treatments. If you must control a pest, use the most specific, least persistent product available. Insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, and biological controls (like Bacillus thuringiensis for caterpillars) have minimal impact on bees when used correctly.
Read labels carefully. Look for the EPA "bee advisory box" on pesticide labels, which describes specific restrictions to protect pollinators.

Providing Water Sources

Bees need water for thermoregulation (evaporative cooling of the hive) and for diluting honey to feed larvae. During hot weather, a strong colony can consume over a quart of water per day. Without a nearby water source, bees expend enormous energy collecting water from gutters, puddles, and swimming pools — where they may encounter contaminants or become a nuisance.

Create a bee water station:

Use a shallow container with pebbles, marbles, or floating corks to provide landing spots (bees cannot swim and will drown in open water)
Refill daily during warm weather
Place it within 50 feet of the apiary
Add a small pinch of salt occasionally — bees prefer slightly mineralized water

Sustainable Harvesting

It is tempting to harvest as much honey as possible, especially after a strong flow. But over-harvesting forces bees to replace their winter stores with sugar syrup, which is nutritionally inferior to honey. Honey contains trace minerals, enzymes, and antioxidant compounds that support bee immune function.

A sustainable approach:

Leave at least 60-80 pounds of honey per double-deep colony for winter in northern climates (40-50 pounds in southern regions)
Do not harvest from first-year colonies — they need all their resources to build comb and establish
If you must feed, use real honey from your own disease-free apiary rather than high-fructose corn syrup when possible

Habitat Around Apiaries

The land within a 1-2 mile radius of your apiary determines its forage quality more than any other factor. Work with landowners, neighbors, and local organizations to improve habitat:

Encourage roadside mowing delays until after wildflowers have bloomed
Plant flowering cover crops on any available land
Leave dead wood and bare ground patches for wild bee nesting
Maintain or establish hedgerows with diverse flowering shrubs

Planting for Pollinators

Regional Plant Recommendations

Different regions have different native plant communities, soil types, and climate patterns. The most effective pollinator plantings use regionally native species, which have co-evolved with local pollinators and are adapted to local growing conditions.

Northeast (ME, NH, VT, NY, MA, CT, RI, PA, NJ):

Early: pussy willow, spicebush, bloodroot
Mid: wild bergamot, New England aster, Joe-Pye weed, golden alexanders
Late: goldenrod, New England aster, smooth aster

Southeast (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, LA):

Early: redbud, titi, saw palmetto, blueberry
Mid: sourwood, magnolia, coneflower, bee balm
Late: goldenrod, aster, saltmarsh mallow

Midwest (OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, MN, IA, MO):

Early: pussy willow, wild plum, prairie smoke
Mid: prairie clover, leadplant, wild bergamot, cup plant
Late: goldenrod, showy aster, rigid goldenrod

Southwest (AZ, NM, TX, NV):

Early: desert willow, brittlebush, fairy duster
Mid: mesquite, creosote bush, desert marigold
Late: chamisa (rabbitbrush), snakeweed, aster

Pacific Northwest (WA, OR, Northern CA):

Early: red-flowering currant, Oregon grape, bigleaf maple
Mid: fireweed, lupine, yarrow, nodding onion
Late: goldenrod, aster, Douglas aster

Top 20 Pollinator Plants

Rank	Plant	Bloom Time	Bee Value	Region	Notes
1	Willow (Salix)	Mar-Apr	Excellent pollen	All	Essential early source
2	Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)	May-Sep	Excellent nectar+pollen	NE, MW, SE	Cover crop potential
3	Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)	Jun-Sep	Excellent nectar	NE, MW, SE	Long bloom period
4	Goldenrod (Solidago)	Aug-Oct	Excellent nectar	NE, MW, SE	Major fall flow
5	New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)	Aug-Oct	Excellent nectar+pollen	NE, MW	Late-season staple
6	Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)	Jun-Aug	Excellent nectar	All	Drought-tolerant
7	Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)	Jul-Sep	Excellent pollen	All	Open-pollinated varieties
8	Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)	Jun-Aug	Excellent nectar	All	Cover crop, quick bloom
9	Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum)	Jul-Sep	Excellent nectar	NE, MW, SE	Tall, moisture-loving
10	Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)	Jun-Aug	Good nectar+pollen	MW, SE	Perennial, drought-tolerant
11	Redbud (Cercis canadensis)	Mar-May	Good nectar	SE, MW	Early tree source
12	Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)	Jun-Aug	Excellent nectar	NE, MW	Hummingbird magnet too
13	Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)	Jun-Oct	Good pollen	NE, MW, SE	Easy to establish
14	Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)	Jun-Aug	Good nectar	MW	Prairie native
15	Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)	Jul-Sep	Excellent nectar	NE, MW	Anise-scented foliage
16	Blueberry (Vaccinium)	Mar-May	Good nectar	NE, SE	Fruit crop bonus
17	Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium)	Jun-Sep	Excellent nectar	PNW, NE	Disturbance-adapted
18	Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum)	Jun-Jul	Excellent nectar	SE	Premium honey source
19	Prairie Clover (Dalea)	Jun-Aug	Good nectar	MW	Nitrogen-fixer
20	Sedum/Stonecrop (Hylotelephium)	Aug-Oct	Good nectar	All	Fall-blooming succulent

💡 Planting tip: Aim for at least three species in bloom at all times from March through November. This ensures a continuous food supply and supports the widest range of pollinator species.

Reducing Pesticide Impact

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for Beekeepers and Gardeners

IPM is a decision-making framework that prioritizes prevention, monitoring, and targeted intervention over routine chemical treatments. For beekeepers, this applies both to managing Varroa in the hive and to minimizing pesticide exposure from the surrounding landscape.

In the hive:

Monitor Varroa levels monthly using alcohol wash or sugar shake (2% threshold for treatment)
Use mechanical controls (drone brood removal, screened bottom boards) before resorting to chemical treatments
When chemical treatment is necessary, use organic acids (oxalic acid, formic acid) or essential oil-based products (thymol) rather than synthetic miticides like amitraz, which can leave persistent residues in wax
Treat during periods of low nectar flow to avoid contaminating honey supers

In the garden and landscape:

Identify the pest before treating — 90% of insects are not pests
Accept some damage as normal; healthy plants can tolerate moderate herbivory
Encourage natural predators (ladybugs, lacewings, parasitic wasps) by providing diverse habitat
Use physical barriers (row covers, hand-picking) as first-line defense
Apply any pesticide in the evening after bees have stopped foraging

Communicating with Neighboring Farmers

If your apiary is near agricultural land, the relationship you build with neighboring farmers can be the single most important factor in protecting your bees from pesticide exposure.

Register your apiary with your state's department of agriculture. Many states maintain apiary registries that pesticide applicators are required to check before spraying.
Introduce yourself. A phone call or face-to-face conversation is worth a dozen emails. Let farmers know where your hives are and when your bees are most active.
Request notification. Ask farmers to give you 48 hours' notice before applying insecticides so you can close your hives or relocate them temporarily.
Be reasonable. Farmers have economic pressures too. Acknowledge their needs and work toward solutions that protect both crops and pollinators.
Offer pollination services. If you can position your colonies as an asset to the farmer's operation rather than a potential liability, you create a built-in incentive for them to protect your bees.

EPA Bee Protection Guidelines

The EPA's current pollinator protection framework includes:

Acute risk-based assessments for all new pesticide registrations
Bee advisory box on labels of products that pose a risk to bees
Enforceable restrictions on application timing and methods for bee-toxic products
Managed pollinator protection plans (MP3s) developed at the state level

✅ Do this: Check your state's MP3 plan. These vary significantly in strength — some are robust, others are largely voluntary. Knowing your state's requirements helps you advocate for your bees effectively.

Organic Alternatives

Organic-certified pesticides are not automatically safe for bees — rotenone, for example, is organic and highly toxic to fish and bees. However, several organic options have low bee toxicity:

Neem oil — disrupts insect growth but low acute toxicity to adult bees
Insecticidal soap — effective against soft-bodied pests, minimal bee impact once dry
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) — targets specific insect groups (caterpillars, mosquito larvae) without affecting bees
Kaolin clay (Surround WP) — physical barrier that deters feeding without toxicity
Spinosad — low to moderate bee toxicity; apply in evening only

Community Action

Individual actions matter, but collective action multiplies impact. Here are proven strategies for building pollinator conservation in your community.

Starting a Local Beekeeping Club

If your area does not have a beekeeping association, starting one creates a hub for education, mentorship, and advocacy. Most successful clubs share these characteristics:

Monthly meetings with educational programming
A mentorship program pairing experienced beekeepers with newcomers
A shared equipment library (extractors, hive tools, suits) to reduce barriers to entry
Annual beginner beekeeping course (often 6-8 sessions)
Representation at local farmers markets, fairs, and community events

Contact your state beekeeping association for guidance — most have templates for starting a local chapter and can connect you with experienced mentors.

Pollinator-Friendly Garden Certification

Several organizations offer certification programs that recognize gardens and landscapes that meet pollinator-friendly criteria:

Xerces Society Pollinator Habitat Sign — requires diverse bloom, nesting habitat, and pesticide-free practices
National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat — broader criteria including food, water, cover, and places to raise young
Bee City USA — a program of the Xerces Society that certifies municipalities committed to pollinator conservation

These certifications serve a dual purpose: they set a standard for your own planting efforts, and they create visible signage that sparks conversations and encourages neighbors to participate.

School Programs

Pollinator gardens at schools provide hands-on education in biology, ecology, and food systems. Programs like the Bee Cause Project provide schools with observation hives and curriculum materials. Even without a hive, a pollinator garden with labeled plants and a bee identification chart can be a powerful teaching tool.

Key elements of a successful school pollinator program:

A designated garden space with diverse, labeled plantings
Age-appropriate curriculum materials (the Xerces Society and Pollinator Partnership both offer free resources)
A maintenance plan that does not depend on a single volunteer
Student involvement in planting, monitoring, and data collection

Citizen Science

You do not need a PhD to contribute to pollinator research. These citizen science programs welcome data from anyone willing to learn the protocols:

Program	Focus	Effort Level	Website
Great Sunflower Project	Pollinator visitation rates	Low (15 min/week)	greatsunflower.org
Bumble Bee Watch	Bumble bee species ID	Medium (photo submission)	bumblebeewatch.org
iNaturalist	All pollinator observations	Low (app-based)	inaturalist.org
monarch Joint Venture	Monarch butterfly monitoring	Medium (seasonal surveys)	monarchjointventure.org
Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab	Native bee distribution	High (specimen collection)	usgs.gov

Policy & Advocacy

Legislative and regulatory action is essential for addressing the systemic drivers of pollinator decline. Individual planting helps, but policy changes can protect millions of acres of habitat and regulate the chemicals that affect pollinators at a landscape scale.

State Apiary Laws

Every state has different laws governing beekeeping. Some states require apiary registration, annual inspections, and specific disease-management protocols. Others have minimal regulation. Knowing your state's laws — and advocating for stronger protections where they are weak — is part of being a responsible beekeeper.

Key areas where state policy matters:

Apiary inspection programs that detect American Foulbrood and other reportable diseases
Zoning laws that determine where beekeeping is permitted (many municipalities have outdated restrictions on residential beekeeping)
Pesticide notification requirements that protect managed colonies from drift
Funding for state apiary programs and extension services

Pesticide Regulations

The regulatory landscape for pesticides and pollinators is evolving rapidly. Stay informed about:

State-level neonicotinoid restrictions — Maryland, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine have enacted various restrictions on consumer neonicotinoid use
EPA interim decisions — The EPA periodically reviews pesticide registrations and can impose new restrictions
Local ordinances — Some municipalities have banned cosmetic pesticide use on public lands

USDA Programs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers several programs that support pollinator conservation:

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) — provides financial and technical assistance to farmers who implement conservation practices, including pollinator habitat establishment. Payments can cover 50-75% of the cost of seed, site preparation, and planting.
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) — pays annual rent to farmers who convert environmentally sensitive land to conservation cover, including pollinator-friendly mixes. CP-42 is the specific practice for pollinator habitat.
Farm Service Agency (FSA) pollinator initiatives — various programs supporting pollinator forage on agricultural lands

These programs represent billions of dollars in potential funding for pollinator habitat. If you know farmers or landowners, encouraging them to participate in EQIP or CRP can create hundreds of acres of pollinator forage in your area.

💡 Contact your local NRCS office (Natural Resources Conservation Service) to learn what programs are available in your county and how to apply. They have staff whose job is to help landowners access these programs.

Contacting Representatives Effectively

A well-crafted message to a legislator can have more impact than a petition with a thousand signatures. Here is what works:

Be specific. "Support HB 2347, which establishes a pollinator habitat program along state highways" is better than "help the bees."
Share your experience. Personal stories — colony losses, observed declines in local wildflowers, successful habitat projects — carry more weight than statistics alone.
Make a clear ask. Tell them exactly what action you want them to take.
Follow up. One call or email is easy to ignore. Polite persistence demonstrates genuine concern.
Bring allies. A letter signed by the local beekeeping club, the garden club, and three farmers has more influence than any single voice.

Reasons for Hope

The data on pollinator decline is serious, but focusing exclusively on the negative creates paralysis rather than action. Across the country, people are doing work that is making a measurable difference — and the evidence is mounting that pollinator conservation works when we commit to it.

Conservation Success Stories

The Ringgold, Iowa, Pollinator Initiative converted 1,200 acres of marginal agricultural land into diverse pollinator habitat through EQIP and CRP programs. Within three years, monitored sites showed a 60% increase in wild bee species richness and a 75% increase in bumble bee abundance.

The Xerces Society's roadside habitat program has worked with state departments of transportation in more than 20 states to reduce mowing frequency and incorporate native wildflower seed mixes into roadside plantings. In Minnesota alone, this program has created an estimated 40,000 acres of pollinator forage along state highways.

The Bee City USA network now includes more than 180 certified communities across 45 states, each committed to creating habitat, reducing pesticide use, and hosting public education events. These municipalities represent tens of millions of people living in areas with formal pollinator conservation commitments.

The Urban Beekeeping Movement

Urban beekeeping has experienced extraordinary growth over the past decade. New York City legalized beekeeping in 2010; today, the city has more than 500 registered apiaries. Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and dozens of other cities have active urban beekeeping communities. Counterintuitively, some research suggests that urban areas may provide better forage diversity than intensively farmed rural landscapes, where monoculture dominates.

Urban beekeeping also serves as a gateway to broader environmental awareness. People who start keeping bees often become advocates for native plantings, pesticide reduction, and green space preservation — creating a ripple effect that extends far beyond the hive.

Corporate Pollinator Commitments

Major corporations are increasingly investing in pollinator conservation, driven by both sustainability goals and supply chain risk:

General Mills has committed to protecting and expanding pollinator habitat on 100,000 acres of land used to source ingredients by 2030
Burt's Bees has funded the planting of more than 10 billion wildflower seeds through its partnership with the Xerces Society
Haagen-Dazs (owned by General Mills) established a honey bee research facility at UC Davis and has funded pollinator forage plantings near almond orchards
Walmart has committed to sourcing 100% of the produce in its produce department from suppliers that have integrated pollinator protection practices by 2030

While corporate commitments should be scrutinized for follow-through, they represent a significant shift in how pollinator conservation is valued in the private sector.

Regenerative Agriculture

The regenerative agriculture movement — which emphasizes soil health, biodiversity, and integrated pest management over chemical-intensive monoculture — has created a growing market for pollinator-friendly farming practices. Cover cropping, no-till methods, and integrated livestock-crop systems all create more diverse landscapes that support pollinators.

The Rodale Institute's long-term farming systems trial has demonstrated that organic and regenerative systems can match or exceed conventional yields while supporting 30-50% more pollinator species. As consumer demand for sustainably produced food grows, the economic case for pollinator-friendly farming strengthens.

What Is Working

Pulling it together, the strategies with the strongest evidence of effectiveness include:

Habitat restoration at scale — converting marginal land to diverse wildflower plantings produces measurable increases in pollinator abundance within 2-3 years
Pesticide regulation — the EU's neonicotinoid restrictions have been followed by measurable reductions in pesticide residues in honey and improvements in wild bee populations in monitored areas
Integrated pest management — farms that adopt IPM reduce insecticide use by an average of 50% without sacrificing yields
Public engagement — citizen science programs, school gardens, and community pollinator plantings create both ecological impact and political will for larger-scale conservation
Economic incentives — USDA conservation programs and market premiums for pollinator-friendly products make conservation financially viable for landowners

The thread connecting all of these successes is straightforward: when we give pollinators the resources they need — diverse flowers, clean habitat, protection from the most harmful chemicals — they recover. Not instantly, and not everywhere, but consistently enough to demonstrate that decline is not inevitable. It is a choice, and it is one we can change.

The best time to plant a pollinator garden was twenty years ago. The second-best time is this weekend. Pick up a packet of native wildflower seeds, find a patch of dirt, and get started. The bees will find it.

References

Sánchez-Bayo, F., & Wyckhuys, K. A. G. (2019). Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers. Biological Conservation, 232, 8-27.
IPBES (2016). The assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production. S. G. Potts, V. L. Imperatriz-Fonseca, H. T. Ngo (eds.). Secretariat of the IPBES, Bonn, Germany.
vanEngelsdorp, D., & Meixner, M. D. (2010). A historical review of managed honey bee populations in Europe and the United States and the factors that may affect them. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 103, S80-S95.
Colony Loss Survey, Bee Informed Partnership. Annual survey results available at beeinformed.org.
Soroye, P., Newbold, T., & Kerr, J. (2020). Climate change contributes to widespread declines among bumble bees across continents. Science, 367(6478), 685-688.
Goulson, D., Nicholls, E., Botías, C., & Rotheray, E. L. (2015). Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers. Science, 347(6229), 1255957.
Woodcock, B. A., et al. (2017). Country-specific effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on honey bees and wild bees. Science, 356(6345), 1393-1395.
Kehrberger, S., & Holzschuh, A. (2019). Warmer temperatures advance flowering in spring-blooming plants more than in summer-blooming plants. Current Biology, 29(12), 2042-2047.
Koh, I., Lonsdorf, E. V., Williams, N. M., Brittain, C., Isaacs, R., Gibbs, J., & Ricketts, T. H. (2016). Modeling the status, trends, and impacts of wild bee abundance in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(1), 140-145.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (2017). Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; rusty patched bumble bee. Federal Register, 82(7), 3186-3208.
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Resources and publications available at xerces.org.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Conservation programs and technical resources available at nrcs.usda.gov.
Environmental Protection Agency. Pollinator protection resources and risk assessment framework available at epa.gov/pollinator-protection.
Garibaldi, L. A., et al. (2013). Wild pollinators enhance fruit set of crops regardless of honey bee abundance. Science, 339(6127), 1608-1611.
Mallinger, R. E., Gaines-Day, H. R., & Gratton, C. (2017). Do managed bees have negative effects on wild bees? A systematic review of the literature. PLoS ONE, 12(12), e0189268.
Rodale Institute. Farming systems trial long-term data. Available at rodaleinstitute.org.

Bees & the Environment: Conservation, Pollinator Decline & What You Can Do

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