Tag | Xerces Society

Land Management

A small plant with yellow flowers, atop a hill in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, with a whole landscape of trees, rivers and mountains in the background.

Why Pollinators, Wildlife, and You Need Federal Public Lands

Without our federal public lands, many invertebrates—and the plants and other animals that depend on them—would be in trouble. You can help speak up for these incredible places.

A view of the 2 hedgerows in springtime. The native plant line short on the left is hugged by burlap strips and the taller Siberian pea-shrub is tall against the red wooden fence on the right.

Living Snow Fence Helps Both Crops and Pollinators in the Semi-Arid West

Not only do hedgerows help block damaging winds, but they can create pollinator habitat, increase carbon capture, and bolster crop production!

A grove of young chestnut trees, about 8ft tall, planted in neat rows within a large forest clearing. Two people are knelt by one tree, inspecting it.

Working With Land Trusts To Create and Conserve Habitat Across New England

Erin Cocca shares her experience helping Maine’s Orono Land Trust with their conservation efforts.

Flowers bloom in the foreground of a Pennsylvania orchard with hills in the distance. Photo: Kelly Gill/ Xerces Society

Intrinsically Linked: Why Climate-Smart Agriculture Must Not Neglect Biodiversity

Agriculture is the single largest land use on the planet, with more than 40% of the Earth’s surface devoted to crops or grazing. In order to fully address climate change and sustain agriculture in an unstable climate, we must also address the biodiversity crisis. By making biodiversity conservation a part of regenerative farming and including it in funding options like the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, the agricultural sector can tackle both the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis simultaneously.

Synchronous fireflies line a path through Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Photo: Radim Schreiber, fireflyexperience.org)

Sparking a Sustainable Firefly Tourism Movement

Firefly tourism is on the rise in the United States. While it can benefit local economies and help more people to experience the wonder of nature, it also presents challenges. Xerces and partners have created a set of guidelines for site managers and an etiquette guide for visitors to help everyone enjoy fireflies in a way that protects them and their habitats.

Part of the bison herd at Rockie Hill Bison Farm, with a view of the city of Winona and the Mississippi River in the background. Photo: Gail Griffin

Selecting seeds for bison, pollinators to share the land

While designing a unique seed mix for restoration takes time, it can be well worth the extra effort. The right mix of plants can boost the long-term ecology and function of a landscape and can be particularly important for working lands – those with multiple uses like agroforestry, grazing and silvopasture. In this article, Farm Bill Pollinator Conservation Planner Karin Jokela describes making the perfect mix to balance the needs of bison and pollinators.

An area of grassland has been set on fire on purpose. Brown smoke rises into the blue sky from the orange flames that mark the division between the burned and unburned grassland. The burned area to the left is black, the unburned are to the right is green with tall brown stems. A fire manager wearing yellow cloths and a blue helmet is walking along the line of fire.

Burning the Land

Fire has been used to manage prairies for centuries, and remains an important tool for grassland managers to reduce woody plant encroachment and increase flower production of key nectar and pollen sources. However, burning entire landscapes is problematic for pollinators, and fire must be used carefully.

Two women stand beside a farm field. One has a black shirt and pale brown pant. The other black pants and a pale brown shirt and is wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carries an orange bag. A strip of brown grass stretches down the edge of the field. Beside the field is an orchard of trees with white trunks and green leaves. In the distance is a green barn and houses with red roofs, and beyond them hills rising toward the blue sky.

The Value of Conservation Planning

Land owners and managers across the state of California have taken up the call to get more habitat in the ground for monarchs. But there’s one important process that comes into play prior to on-the-ground restoration: before we can plant, we plan.

A women wearing a shite shite and a straw hat stands in a meadow, with plants and yellow flowers up to her waist. Behind her a line of tall trees with green leaves stretches into the distance.

Coming Home: A Woman Landowner’s Conservation Calling

The next generation is something Ruth Rabinowitz spends a lot of time thinking about. As an Iowa farmer with a deep commitment to conservation, she feels it’s important for her to remember to look beyond her own lifetime.

A young burrowing owl runs across the ground with a green grasshopper in its bill. The owls feathers are fuffy. They are brown on its back and top of heard and white on its belly and chest. Its face is brown with horizontal stripes of white across its chin and forehead and it has striking yellow eyes that have a black center.

Protecting Grassland Ecosystems from Insecticides

Grasshoppers play a central role in rangeland ecosystems and food webs. Herbivory by grasshoppers speeds up the recycling of nutrients from plants, and they are a vital part of the diet of dozens of other rangeland animals. Aerial spraying campaigns to control grasshoppers have wide impacts on rangeland ecology. Xerces staff are working to reduce spraying and protect rangeland wildlife.

In the middle of the photo is the purple flower of a tiny wild pansy. The pansy is growing the decaying stems of bushes that were cut down.

The Return of Wild Pansies at Polk City Cemetery

In Iowa, volunteers are working hard to restore an area of old prairie. They are seeing signs that the grassland is recovering, including the regrowth of pale coneflowers and wild pansies.

Wildflowers grow beside a quite rural road. The most abundant plant has small gray-green leaves that grow on horizontal branches and a clyster of long, narrow spikes of dark purple flowers at the top of the stem

Pollinators Find a Home on Roadsides

State Departments of Transportation manage millions of acres of land and have an opportunity to make a significant difference for pollinators. Roadsides provide pollinator habitat, as well as connectivity across otherwise inhospitable landscapes -- and may be home to native plant communities that can no longer be found in surrounding lands.

Gently undulating rangeland stretches to the horizon. The silver-grey leaves of plants show between the green grass. In the distance a cluster of farm buildings sit in the shelter of trees. Brown and black cattle graze.

Great Plains Rangelands Are Important Habitat for Pollinators

Rangelands of the Great Plains are a highly diverse—and endangered—ecosystem filled with subtle beauty that is often underappreciated. These landscapes evolved with natural disturbances, such as grazing and wildfire. Maintaining disturbance through active management is essential for healthy rangelands and pollinators.

A super close-up photo of a bee shows every detail of its body. The bee is dark, almost black, and very shiny, with pale brown hairs on it's head and thorax. Its legs have patches of long, dense hairs in which it can carry pollen.

Wetlands as Pollinator Habitat

A bee that collects floral oils rather than nectar? Yes! The nude yellow loosestrife bee relies on a single species of wetland plant, fringed loosestrife, to supply its nest, demonstrating the importance of protecting, restoring, and managing wetland habitats.

A cow and her calf, both black, lie in the middle of sagebrush and grasses, with the rangeland stretching away to the horizon.

Planned Grasshopper Sprays Threaten Monarchs, Bees, Beneficial Insects, and Birds Across Western Rangelands

Rangelands of the western United States are home to many amazing species of wildlife from sage-grouse to butterflies, and frequently used for cattle grazing. A significant proportion of rangelands are publicly owned, so how they are managed, especially when it comes to grasshopper control, is a topic of great concern.

The English countryside is a patchwork of woodlands and farm fields edged by hedgerows.

England’s Ancient Woodlands: Living Time Capsules

To many people, the roar of a chainsaw is a sound of alarm, not conservation. But for England’s surviving ancient woodlands, the chainsaw has become a valuable tool.

Three young men use shovels to help plant a new tree in the middle of a grove

Planning and Planting for the Future of Monarchs in California

Pismo State Beach is one of the most important overwintering sites for monarchs in California. It has regularly hosted over 10% of the entire western monarch population each winter. Xerces Society has partnered with California State Parks, Creekside Center for Earth Observation, and others to develop and implement a plan to restore and enhance the site’s ability to host monarchs.

A small aircraft flies close to the ground as it sprays insecticides on rangeland

Home on the Range: Grasshoppers and Insecticides on Western Rangelands

Usually considered competitors with livestock for forage, grasshoppers can actually be beneficial to rangelands by affecting plant composition, and even influence the soil microbial communities. They also play a critical role in the grassland food web. Despite the inability to tie grasshopper densities to the potential for damage, planes and ground crews are deployed every summer to spray against grasshoppers.

The green leaves of this milkweed plant are badly curled and distorted due to contamination by the herbicide dicamba

New Report: How Dicamba Herbicides are Harming Cultivated and Wild Landscapes

Since 2016, more than five million acres of crops—an area roughly the size of New Jersey—have been injured by dicamba drifting off site. Concerned landowners and volunteer monitoring efforts also have raised the alarm about extensive drift damage to wild plant communities across the Midwest and mid-South.