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Advice and insights for promoting pollinators in a habitat plan

By Ciera Garner and Allie Barth
Title image caption: Monarch on prairie blazing star

When Aldo Leopold, the father of game management, wrote the words below, he could have been talking directly about pollinator habitat’s relationship to pheasants and other wildlife.

Landowners, managers and caretakers hold the key to preserving the biotic community on their property. When managing for, say … pheasants, keep in mind other creatures that could benefit from slight adjustments in your plan.

Pollinators should be a set of creatures included in your plan. Pollinator habitat is a prime component within the habitat mosaic of what pheasants and quail need.

GOOD POLLINATOR HABITAT

So, what does good pollinator habitat actually look like? Picture areas with a high diversity of native forbs, also known as wildflowers, and many of those flowers throughout. The higher the number of wildflower species, the higher the number of native pollinators you will attract.

When planting a seed mix, include a blend of species that will bloom at different times throughout the year. Native warm-season grasses are also important in your mix due to certain ground-nesting insects, such as native bees, that prefer areas around bunch grasses and the litter/thatch that results.

Why should an upland game organization, and those who own and/or manage land, be interested in pollinator habitat? Leopold’s insight gives us the answer: integrity, stability, beauty. So does this simple fact: Those same forbs and native grasses are vital to upland gamebirds like pheasants and quail.

Upland birds use stands of native grasses and forbs as prime nesting and brood-rearing cover, as well as escape and winter cover.

An old PF colleague had a saying: “There is only one time of year when we gain more birds ... summer.” He was talking about how important it is to always consider the pheasant’s nesting and brood-rearing needs, even before thinking of fall and winter hunting opportunities.

Native grasses and wildflowers provide such a place; and they are good places to hunt too. (That colleague also would say, “Any ground you can hunt easily, so can a predator.”)

Forbs are a primary resource for gamebird food, in two ways. Those native wildflowers attract insects that serve as the protein-rich diet that chicks need to grow fast and strong. Seeds from the flowers can also provide forage when the heads dry.

Additionally, many of our native wildflowers have very stiff stems and help adjacent native grasses stand up to winter snows and winds.

DESIGN AT THE CORE

When considering including pollinator habitat on your property, several options exist for how it could be designed.

For instance, you could set aside a portion of a field or area, or do whole fields. Look at your property and think about those areas that are not productive or profitable. Whether in a row crop or pasture setting, we all know exactly where those unproductive areas are on the land. Those are prime places to put pollinator habitat.

If you want your pollinator habitat to also benefit your upland gamebirds, you will want a total habitat size of at least five acres for bobwhite quail, and at least 20 acres for pheasants. From there, you will want to designate around 60 percent as pollinator habitat. Remember: This habitat doubles as your nesting and brood-rearing habitat for your birds.

Suppose you have a whole field you’re not using, or that is not productive or profitable. In that case, whole-field pollinator habitat may be the way to go, as it can provide several cover types with one diverse seed mix.

Cover diversity is key. It is much easier to start with a diverse native seed mix than try to increase diversity later.

PROGRAMS FOR POLLINATORS

Several programs are available to help you plan for and receive financial assistance to create quality prairie and pollinator habitat on your land. In the case of converting unproductive crop acres, these programs can also provide a return.

On the federal side, there are programs from the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) and FSA (Farm Service Agency) with the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program), EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program), CSP (Conservation Stewardship Program), and several others.

Each program offers specific “practices” to help you achieve your goals or solve your resource concerns … in our case, wildlife. The best way to get started is to reach out to your local Pheasants Forever biologist. Their job is to help you navigate the process.

Additionally, programs through your state natural resource department or state agriculture department usually exist to do similar practices and improvements.

Even at the local level, conservation organizations and other groups may have available resources. The guidance and standards to establish your pollinator habitat will likely be similar no matter your chosen program. Still, the timeline, financial assistance, eligibility and restrictions will likely be different.

SEED NOTES

You can still get pollinator benefits even if a program or practice doesn’t explicitly state “pollinator.” Some states/practices have varying levels of specifications, but the most important factor is choosing a quality, and diverse, seed mix.

Talk to your planner or biologist about the best seed mix for your goals. At the very least, stick with a blend comprising only native species (native to your state and area) and get as many forb species as possible, at 50 to 75 percent of the total mix. Native grasses can make up the rest.

PRESCRIBED FIRE

Other practices that are beneficial to pollinators include Forest Stand Improvement (FSI) and prescribed burning.

FSI is where you thin timber appropriately, to lower its density. Running a fire through it allows sunlight to reach the floor, allowing native grasses and forbs to pop up.

Running fire through old, stagnant grass stands can bring back diversity to the vegetation, and life to the land.

The timing of prescribed burns is critical. Burning in the typical mid-to-late spring timeframe stimulates more of your native grass species, which can out-compete your forbs, but also helps set back non-native cool-season grass encroachment.

To promote forbs (which is usually the limiting factor in a landscape), early spring (March), late growing season (August-September) and fall (October and November) burns should give an increased forb response.

JOYS, CHALLENGES AND REWARDS

There are many joys and challenges that come with managing your acres for natives. One of the joys we see from landowners is their craving for more knowledge. They desperately want to learn more and understand why we recommend what we do. Usually, their plant identification gets exponentially better once they delve into what makes suitable habitat.

There’s nothing better than seeing a landowner get excited about a great native plant they found on their property. We also love hearing about the increase in butterflies, bees, pheasants and quail on their property.

With those joys also come some challenges. That same craving for knowledge sometimes is difficult with something like plant identification. There are so many to learn!

During the establishment period of a new native planting, it also takes a vast amount of patience. And some time. We try to remind landowners of the Sleep, Creep, Leap phenomenon that is establishment. It usually takes around three years for a planting to become fully established. Then, boom!

There are also the challenges of planning, equipment and contractors that sometimes come with habitat management. With the right amount of patience and excitement, though, anyone can be successful and find vast rewards making things right and creating quality habitat on their land.

Ciera Garner and Allie Barth are a couple of real PF flowerheads. Ciera is Working Lands for Wildlife Pollinator Coordinator for Pheasants Forever, while Allie is PF’s Senior Farm Bill Biologist serving east-central Iowa.