Learn more.

www.fws.gov/pollinators/pollinatorpages/yourhelp.html includes podcasts, videos
www.xerces.org: newsletter, searchable database, Pollinator Habitat signs, pledge
crownbees.com has easy info, series of lessons, sells solitary bees and kits
www.grownativemass.org includes annual sale of native plants

Limit harm.

• Avoid toxins incl. herbicides. Dandelions are useful (and tasty)!
• Careful where you get plants. Ask! Favor small stores and local swaps.
• Limit non-natives. Pull out and trash harmful plants. Black swallow-wort is a perennial vine that’s cute but terrible; its pods spread thousands of seeds on the wind.
• Favor produce grown with better practices; support those growers.

Help those helping: give money, time, word-of-mouth.

Raise awareness. Ask. Organize.

Neighbors, friends, family, “church,” school (www.wholekidsfoundation.org/schools/honey-bee-grant), employer, city/state entities and higher.

• Be ready to speak about clear, simple-enough points. Consider how frame it best to appeal to your audience: Pollinators are gentle and fun, food costs rise, etc.
• Newsletters & social media: subscribe, share content with a personal comment.
• Conversation starters: sign, shirt, profile picture, email signature, “Give bees a chance”
• Various interests: art, science, food, mindfulness... Could combine “budgets.”
• Petitions. Letters to media and elected officials. Grant writing.
• Get-togethers! View videos, create habitat, raise funds, write letters, visit local sites (Fresh Pond, Tufts field research, Audubon)

Create habitat -- even without space of your own.

Give “hotels” and good plants as gifts, help install as needed! Lazy wins in landscaping!

-Leave an area unplanted and unwatered for ground-nesting pollinators

-Leave an area unmowed

-Leave autumn leaves (leaf mold is excellent), some dead wood

Plant pollinator helpers

-Aim for variety of shape, smell, color and timing to sustain many through the year.

• • Bees: Big landing pads; yellow and blue colors; sweet smell