{"id":22993,"date":"2018-07-01T08:06:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T12:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=22993"},"modified":"2018-07-10T14:18:47","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T18:18:47","slug":"feed-a-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2018\/07\/01\/feed-a-bee\/","title":{"rendered":"Feed a Bee: Grant program helps restore pollinator food sources"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_22925\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22925\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22925\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Cecilia-Wright.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of bee close up\" width=\"1024\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Cecilia-Wright.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Cecilia-Wright-300x117.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Cecilia-Wright-768x300.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-22925\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">by Cecilia Wright<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s a buzz about local woodlands. The Maryland Forest Service is taking part in Feed a Bee, a national program to increase food sources for pollinators by planting wildflowers and establishing additional forage acreage across the nation.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bayer Crop Sciences is supporting this project with a $5,000 cash award, which the department used to purchase the native wildflower and grass seed being planted to restore former log decks, skid trails and odd corners of old fields that were bastions of invasive species.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One such project already underway in\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/forests\/pages\/publiclands\/eastern_pocomokeforest.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pocomoke State Forest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will result in 6 acres of new\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/wildlife\/Pages\/habitat\/home.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">pollinator habitat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22926\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22926\" class=\"wp-image-22926\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Lori-R-Bramble.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of bee in purple flower\" width=\"250\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Lori-R-Bramble.jpg 350w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Bee_Lori-R-Bramble-300x257.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-22926\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">by Lori R. Bramble<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first step toward thriving restoration is clearing the area with\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/forests\/Pages\/fire\/firenotes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">prescribed burns<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to remove plant litter and duff\u2014dead plant materials like old bark, leaves and twigs. Eliminating competition gives the seeds a better chance of germinating, growing and getting established. Fire also releases the nutrients bound in the litter and duff, injecting them as a burst of organic fertilizer into the soil. Everything grows better after a fire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once new forage grows, pollinators will do what they do best and help re-establish a healthy, thriving and sustainable ecosystem. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Forest Service is just one of more than 115 cross-industry partner organizations, representing 900,000 people around the nation participating in Feed a Bee. To date, this major initiative has distributed more than 3 billion wildflower seeds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best part is you don\u2019t have to be a state agency to get involved. The initiative is open to any group or organization, even individuals, with certain criteria and goals:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Establishing pollinator forage via a dedicated planting or habitat restoration led by the applying organization. Examples of activities may include establishing a pollinator garden, increasing acreage of existing forage, integrated vegetation management of rights-of-way, restoration of native habitat land, invasive weed control, hedgerows, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Location must be viable and able to support pollinator forage plants (wildflowers, ornamentals or trees) and pollinators, including farms, community\/urban gardens, schools, rights-of-way, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Education initiative encouraging others to establish pollinator forage. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Promoting pollinator education to third parties, sharing with them the importance of planting or restoring diverse, abundant forage to provide pollinators with enough food and sustain a healthy ecosystem.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;background-color: #9000ff\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><b>Did you know? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Animal pollinators are responsible for pollinating more than 80 percent of flowering plants and 30 percent of crops worldwide. In Maryland, the most important group of pollinators is bees. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learn more about their impact and how you can help via our\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/wildlife\/Pages\/habitat\/wawhatsthebuzz.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">What\u2019s the Buzz<\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> webpage.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Article by <\/span><\/i><b><i>Daniel Rider<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014Forest Service stewardship manager. Appears in Vol. 21, No. 3 of the Maryland Natural Resource magazine, summer 2018.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shopdnr.com\/dnrmagazine.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22912 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Store_Bee.jpg\" alt=\"Click here to subscribe\" width=\"1098\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Store_Bee.jpg 1098w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Store_Bee-300x106.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Store_Bee-768x271.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Store_Bee-1024x361.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1098px) 100vw, 1098px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s a buzz about local woodlands. The Maryland Forest Service is taking part in Feed a Bee, a national program to increase food sources for pollinators by planting wildflowers and establishing additional forage acreage across the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":22925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,1965,13],"tags":[3168,3636],"class_list":["post-22993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appnews","category-maryland-forest-service","category-wildlife","tag-magazine","tag-pollinators"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22993"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22999,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22993\/revisions\/22999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}