Pollinator Conservation Training

Pollinator Conservation Training

Summary

The Pollinator Conservation Planning Short Course is a full day Professional Development Program on basic pollinator biology, native bee identification, bee-friendly farm management practices, designing and implementing habitat enhancements, and how to use NRCS programs for pollinator conservation. The Short Course is being offered in all twelve North Central SARE states with collaboration by multiple partner organizations including academic institutions, Cooperative Extension, the NRCS, and others.

This Short Course is designed in response to the highly-publicized loss of pollinators resulting from habitat loss, pesticide use, and other factors, and it will support greater crop security for producers of bee pollinated crops, such as fruits, vegetables, oilseeds and forage seed crops.

In response to those declines, the current Farm Bill offers support for the creation and protection of wildflower plantings and pollinator nest site sites through programs administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

The knowledge necessary to implement those programs, however, has not yet been fully developed at the field office level. By providing training to NRCS staff and other farm educators, such as Cooperative Extension personnel, state departments of agriculture and natural resources, crop consultants, and others, we are filling that void.

Nine of these Short Courses are supported with SARE funds, with leveraged, non-SARE funding making additional Short Course opportunities available to SARE audiences in many states.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Our specific performance target for the Pollinator Conservation Short Course has been to reach at least 30 participants at each event, who are capable of influencing at least 100 acres of land in a way that benefits pollinators (often by recommending simple modifications to practices such as mowing, or the timing of pesticide applications among their constituent audiences).

Based upon that target, a single Short Course with only 30 participants may result in the adoption of pollinator-friendly land management practices on at least 3000 acres. Nine such events with 30 participants each may thus directly benefit pollinators on 27,000 acres of land.
Every effort has been made to maximize attendance beyond this baseline, however, and to have an even larger post-event impact. Through small successive steps, we are able to affect large-scale change.

Accomplishments/Milestones

During the reporting period, we developed and sent a one year follow up survey to all Short Course attendees. This survey was intended to see if and how participants have been using the information gained from the Short Course. We received an average response rate of 37% from both years of the survey (2010 and 2011 course participants). The survey is attached for reference.

• Xerces Survey Questions

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

More than 400 people have participated in the Short Courses in nine different states during this project, for an average of 46 participants per course (our overall performance target was 270 total participants).

In addition, we were successful in raising awareness among farm educators about pollinators in a way that is directly affecting their work. Specifically, based upon post event questionnaires, 96% of responding agricultural support professionals said that the Short Course changed how they would advise farmers on management practices to support pollinators and that they planned to encourage the adoption of pollinator habitat enhancements by the growers they work with through Farm Bill conservation programs.

While the Short Course specifically targets farm educators and farm agency staff, a number of farmers attended each event. Among them, 95% of respondents said that attending the Short Course changed how they would support pollinators on their farms. These farmers and landowners collectively manage approximately 9,763 acres of land.

In follow up surveys given one year after each Short Course, 97% of survey respondents said that they used the information gained from the Short Course in the year since they attended. The top three ways in which survey participants used the information gained was by including pollinator conservation in education or outreach programs, providing additional habitat resources, and assisting farmers/clients/land managers in implementing pollinator conservation practices. These results indicate that we were successful in our initial project objectives: to provide a train-the-trainer approach to expanding pollinator conservation efforts, facilitating the installation of habitat on the ground, and encouraging enrollment in NRCS and FSA Farm Bill conservation programs. Fifty-two survey respondents indicated that they enrolled, encouraged, or assisted others in the enrollment in NRCS conservation programs for pollinators.

We also attempted to quantify how many acres of land have been managed for the benefit of pollinators. In 2010, respondents reported that they had implemented or helped implement changes in land management to benefit pollinators on 2,578 acres of land. This is a very conservative estimate, and we believe the actual acreage to be much higher. In 2011, we changed this question in order to tease out a better estimate of acres affected by allowing participants to write in an answer instead of selecting a range of options. Participants from 2011 Short Courses reported that they had created 4,475 acres of habitat for the benefit of pollinators. They also reported to have changed pesticide practices on 1,980 acres of land and adjusted management practices on 2,158 acres of land.

No negative unplanned challenges arose during this reporting period. The single unanticipated challenge we have continued to face is a larger than expected interest in Short Course enrollment. We continue to receive inquiries and requests to provide addition short courses from people in North Central SARE states.

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