![]() ![]() The work varies based on the property, Williamson said, but many focus on diversifying existing plantings. One of those was Governor Dodge State Park in Iowa County, where Williamson said over the last year, there was a documented sighting of the rusty patched bumblebee, a federally endangered listed species, something she said shows "this habitat work is working." In recent years, 10 other state parks have received funding. They are Aztalan State Park, Brunet Island State Park, Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area, Hank Aaron State Trail, Harrington Beach State Park, Pattison State Park and Peninsula State Park.Ĭaitlin Williamson, the NRF's director of conservation programs, credited much of the support for DNR's work to the Wisconsin Pollinator Protection Fund. Those dollars will go toward increasing pollinator habitat at seven state parks, as part of the 'Pollinator in the Parks' program, which began in 2021. But the DNR announced Monday it's receiving $35,000 in new funding from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, a nonprofit. The state agency also doesn't have dedicated funding to protect pollinator habitat. We're doing the best with what we have," Watson said. "We do not have funding to survey statewide. Watson said it's been difficult to collect some information on other species. Butterflies that depend on prairies or grasslands are showing the biggest decline in the butterfly group, Watson said. In 2022, the monarch butterfly was classified endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Those could range from dry spells that cause a reduction in some plants' blooming period to flooding events. Watson pointed to a number of causes driving a decrease in some pollinator populations, including habitat degradation and extreme weather conditions. That affects an estimated one out of every three bites of food humans eat. Globally, about 75 percent of flowering plants depend on animals for pollination, according to the U.S. and 20,000 around the world, according to the 2016 DATCP Wisconsin Pollinator Protection Plan. In Wisconsin, there are about 400 bee species, with about 3,600 in the U.S. They transfer pollen from one flower to another, which allows plants to reproduce. Pollinators include bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps and hummingbirds, among others. "That's the most concerning to me, is you start losing this whole ecological service that gets broken down and has a trickle-down effect," he continued. "These are pollinating our native plants and also our foods that we eat." "We're losing species from different parts of the range in the state, and eventually if we lose enough of them, they're going to disappear," said Jay Watson, a conservation biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources. Some of the most important sources of the global food supply - pollinators - are in decline, but work is underway in Wisconsin that could reverse that trend. ![]()
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