Pollinators Weave Connections

June is a fantastic month to talk about and do something nice for pollinators! Why? Because June 16-22 is National Pollinator Week.

The Pollinator Partnership sums up Pollinator Week 2025 perfectly:

Pollinator Week 2025 is a celebration of the vital role that pollinators play in our ecosystems, economies, and agriculture. Under the inspiring theme "Pollinators Weave Connections," this year's event urges us to appreciate the essential role pollinators play in creating and expressing human culture, in all of its forms.

Twenty-two years ago, the US Senate approved and designated a week in June to address the issue of declining pollinator populations. Word spread, and it has now grown into an international celebration honoring our world’s winged and six-legged heroes who work so hard to provide a necessary service for humanity.

In most places, the whole month of June is dedicated to educating our communities about the plight of pollinators while promoting their health and well-being. People are encouraged to plant pollinator gardens and to mix some native trees, bushes, and wildflowers in with their property’s landscaping.

What Happened to the Pollinators?

Mother Earth’s ecosystems were designed to benefit from each other. Vegetation provided food and shelter for all the creatures while in return, the critters ensured the plants and trees continued to thrive by pollination and seed dispersal.

The natural balance worked very nicely for millennia until humans got greedy and began destroying more and more native habitats to make way for farming and urbanization. The flowering bushes, weeds, wildflowers, and grasses tried to make a comeback, but between herbicides killing them off and invasive species choking them out, the plants and trees didn’t stand a chance. In addition to our mindless destruction of habitat, human-made pollution, chemicals, and pesticides have poisoned the land and plants. As habitat dwindled away, so did the pollinators.

All pollinators are facing significant threats. An analysis by the Xerces Society and the IUCN North American Bumble Bee Specialist Group indicates that “more than one-quarter of North American bumble bees are facing some degree of extinction risk.”

The time is now to remedy these dire statistics. It can be done, but it’ll take everyone pitching in to help.

What Can We Do To Correct the Imbalance?

That’s the whole idea behind June’s pollinator awareness campaigns. First, learn about pollinators – who they are, what they do, and why they are so important – and then do what you can to help.

Bees, butterflies, birds, bats, beetles, and all sorts of other insects, reptiles, and mammals collect and spread grains of pollen as they drink nectar and/or investigate flowering plants, trees, and shrubs. It’s because of these guys that we have the fruits and veggies we depend on for survival.

We’ve all heard that pollinators are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. Last year, one community in North Carolina demonstrated our dependence on these busy creatures by having their downtown bakery highlight the ingredients of everything in their display case made by pollinators. Patrons discovered we need pollinators for the vanilla, chocolate, and spices to flavor the pastries, gooey chocolate chunk cookies, and birthday cakes. Seeing it like that reinforced the importance of pollinators in our everyday lives.

It’s not just the food plants that benefit from pollinators. Shade trees, shrubs, bushes, and the brightly-hued wildflowers we love to gaze at are all dependent on pollinators as well. Without them, the plants would not bloom, and we’d lose not only their beauty but also the root systems that aerate our soil and prevent erosion.

So that leads us to part two: what can we do about the pollinator crisis?

Join the Bug-a-thon

Whether you prefer a week or a month-long bug-a-thon, there’s plenty you can do to observe the national pollinator awareness campaign.

• Tell your friends and neighbors. Get them just as excited as you are about rescuing native bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

• Plant something. You don’t have to create a large garden or re-landscape your lawn. The pollinators would greatly appreciate just a few native plants added to your yard, patio, or balcony. It’s quality, not quantity.

• Plant for every season. Have a variety of plants that bloom throughout the year. For lists of pollinator-friendly native plants by region, check out this page from the Xerces Society.

• Don’t forget shrubs and trees. Complement your flowers with other native plants. Also, provide accommodations for your winged guests by hanging up some birdhouses, bee hotels, and even bat houses as well.

• Participate in pollinator-related activities. Some communities have many activities planned for Pollinator Month; some don’t. If your community is lacking, make up your own activities.

1. Pollinator.org has information on some events.

2. You can also locate a Bee Cities USA/ Bee Campus USA near you to find out what they have going on.

3. Check out your state’s Native Plant Society or other conservation groups in your area.

4. Do your own thing to celebrate pollinators! Learn something new about them. Tell your neighbors what great things our winged, buzzing, fluttering, creeping, crawling, multilegged friends do for us.

Enjoy Pollinator Awareness Week/Month. Do something nice for the hard-working creatures and remember: Stop Destroying and Start Restoring.

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