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Discover Nature: National Pollinator Week

A green, black, and yellow sweat bee hovers over the spiked, orange center of a purple coneflower.
Missouri Department of Conservation
Pollinators like this Missouri-native sweat bee help produce human food and wildlife habitat. Celebrate National Pollinator Week with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Pollinator Partnership.

 From tiny ants to bats, birds, bees, and butterflies, we depend on pollinators to produce our food, and protect biodiversity. This week on discover nature, we celebrate national pollinator week. 

 

At least 450 species of bees are native to Missouri. They’re considered the most efficient pollinators – even better than honeybees. For instance, one blueberry bee can visit 50,000 flowers in its short lifetime, resulting in the production of 6,000 blueberries. 

 

Other pollinators include spiders, beetles, moths, and flies – all working together to protect our food supply and to create the habitats that most other animals rely on for food and shelter. 

 

Scientists believe that loss of habitat may be a key to pollinators’ decline across the country. 

 

Fortunately, there’s room on every lawn and every farm in Missouri to improve habitat for pollinators:

 

  • Plant native wildflowers;
  • Avoid using broad-spectrum herbicides near native plantings;
  • And avoid burning from mid-May through mid-October.

 
Learn more about pollinators and how you can help them at MissouriConservation.org, or the following conservation partners: 

 

 
Discover Nature is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Kyle Felling was born in the rugged northwest Missouri hamlet of St. Joseph (where the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended). Inspired from a young age by the spirit of the early settlers who used St. Joseph as an embarkation point in their journey westward, Kyle developed the heart of an explorer and yearned to leave for adventures of his own. Perhaps as a result of attending John Glenn elementary school, young Kyle dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but was disheartened when someone told him that astronauts had to be good at math. He also considered being a tow truck driver, and like the heroes of his favorite childhood television shows (The A-Team and The Incredible Hulk) he saw himself traveling the country, helping people in trouble and getting into wacky adventures. He still harbors that dream.
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