April Spotlight - Pollinators
Plight of the Pollinators
by Jan Robinson
It started with a small folded pamphlet on a rack — the kind most of us walk right past. But the title stopped me: Plight of the Pollinator.
I picked it up, and I'm glad I did.
Inside was a reminder of something easy to overlook: the butterflies drifting through your garden, the bees hovering over a blackberry bloom, the hummingbirds threading between flowers — these small, seemingly ordinary creatures are doing extraordinary work. Scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because a pollinator showed up and did its job. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, oils — the variety and abundance on our plates traces back to these quiet, industrious travelers carrying pollen from flower to flower.
And right now, they need our help.
Across the country, honeybee colonies are collapsing in numbers that have scientists scrambling for answers. You may have seen the flatbed trucks hauling stacked white hive boxes down the highway — commercial beekeepers transporting their colonies to pollinate seasonal crops. It's a fragile system, and its cracks are showing. Meanwhile, wild bees and butterflies — who live solitary lives rather than in hives — face their own quiet pressures: habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and the disappearance of the native plants they depend on.
The good news? There's something real you can do, starting in your own backyard.
Organizations like Pollinator Partnership have developed free planting guides tailored to every region of the country, helping gardeners choose native plants that give pollinators exactly what they need. Low-growing natives, flowering shrubs, and layered plantings don't just feed bees and butterflies — they provide shelter for songbirds and small mammals too. A pollinator-friendly garden becomes a small ecosystem all its own.
With spring fully here, this is the perfect moment to look at what's growing around you — and imagine what else could be.
June 22–28 is National Pollinator Week. To explore planting guides for your area and learn how to get involved, visit pollinator.org or nappc.org.