With one in every three bites of food we eat dependent on animal pollinators, it’s important to help support their habitats says University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Nicole Flowers-Kimmerle. With decreasing populations of pollinators such as monarchs and honeybees, Flowers-Kimmerle says homes and landowners can take part in a new program called Conservation@Home to encourage pollinator-friendly habitats.
“We encourage adding flowers. Take some of your lawn out of irrigated land and put in some more flowers, especially natives. We find those are really beneficial to pollinators,” Flowers-Kimmerle. “When we have more beneficial insects and pollinators that help support birds. We found through the Cornell ornithology lab that we have three, 3 billion fewer birds than we’ve had in the last 20 years, it’s decreased and so to support those birds is really important.”
Another new resource Flowers-Kimmerle shares to support pollinators is IllinoisPollinators.org.
Listen to the whole interview with Flowers-Kimmerle here.
