Attracting More Bees to the PMC to Benefit Agriculture
 

The Pollinator Partnership recently reached out to the Tucson Plant Materials Center (PMC) to plant a pollinator garden and collect data.  Financial help from the Pollinator Partnership and CS Fund* got things started and the Tucson PMC staff provided the expertise and labor to plant and care for the new garden that was recently completed at the Tucson Plant Materials Center.  The facility will serve as a study location to teach experts more about how to cultivate and attract more pollinators.

The Tucson PMC looks at the new pollinator garden as an opportunity to provide an additional service to agriculture.  “We hope to learn what plants to recommend to farmers and ranchers to provide habitat for our native pollinators; specifically low water use plants,” said Heather Dial, assistant manager at the Tucson PMC.

Steve Buchmann from the Pollinator Partnership hopes the garden will thrive for the next 5-10 years.  “We are hoping to work with one or more University of Arizona students and getl data on what kinds of native bees and other pollinators visit the PMC pollinator garden.”

find out more about NRCS in Arizona

The food we eat depends on birds, bees, butterflies, and other insects moving pollen.  At least 80 percent of our world's crop plant species require pollination, according to the Pollinator Partnership.  As much as one out of every three bites of food come to us through the work of animal pollinators.  Birds, bees, butterflies, bats, beetles, and even mosquitoes all transfer pollen between seed plants.
Your contact is NRCS public affairs specialist George Couch at 602-280-8806.

* The CS Fund and Warsh/Mott Legacy are “private foundations which are linked by common issue interests and boards of directors.  CS Fund and Warsh/Mott Legacy are dedicated to preserving biodiversity, defending democracy, preventing the commodification of life, and protecting human and environmental health.”