Agricultural practices and plant selection for integrating pollinator habitat into crop headlands and pastures

Commodities

Practices

The rapid expansion of agricultural land in the Western U.S. has significantly reduced natural habitats, leading to a decline in native plant and bee biodiversity. This issue is particularly concerning as orchard headlands and pastures are often dominated by grasses, which outcompete nectar and pollen plants vital for pollinators. This project looks to create cost-effective dual use headlands and pastures, that provide the benefits of grass, while simultaneously providing nectar and pollen resource for managed and native bees.

This project builds on previous Western SARE grants to evaluate establishment techniques for bee-attractive flowering forbs within non-irrigated grass systems through two distinct experiments. The first trial focuses on integrating pollinator habitat into agricultural headlands, while the second examines enhancing tall fescue pasture floral diversity. In both systems, fall seeding of bee-attractive forbs will be paired with targeted treatments designed to suppress grass competition. Researchers will monitor the establishment and long-term persistence of these species while quantifying available nectar and pollen resources per acre alongside secondary agroecosystem benefits.

Outreach will play a central role in bridging the gap between research and practical application. We will host a series of educational workshops to equip farm and pasture managers with the technical expertise necessary to implement and maintain effective pollinator habitats. These sessions will emphasize practical establishment techniques, the selection species optimized for non-irrigated systems, and strategies for navigating cost-share programs. The project's findings will ultimately be synthesized into a peer-reviewed Extension publication, providing a permanent resource for sustainable land management and pollinator conservation.

There are two field trials in this proposal. The objective of the fist trial or the headlands experiment is to quantify the effects of herbicide (acetic acid, glyphosate or nontreated control) with or without flail mowing on the establishment and persistence of fall seeded pollinator plants (California poppy, field chicory and blanket flower). The objective of the second trial or the pastureland experiment is to evaluate the combined effects of tilling and no tilling with selective grass herbicide or no herbicide on the establishment and persistence of fall seeded pollinator positive legumes that can also be used for livestock forage (hairy vetch and birdsfoot trefoil). For both experiments, evaluation will include plant persistence, flowering and pollinator traffic produced by these pollinator plants in the respective dryland system. The pastureland project will include periods of hay harvest and grazing. Findings from this research could provide farms with organically certified methods for establishing pollinator plants in non-irrigated headland and pastureland areas. These pollinator stands could improve crop yield and provide federal and state funding to the farmland owners. Findings from these projects, and grower methods for capitalizing on federal and state pollinator incentive programs will be delivered through extension presentations, field tours and extension bulletins. Findings from this research will be published in my M.S. thesis and peer review publications.