PFSP is a Tax-Exempt 501(c)(3) Nonprofit

EIN:  26-2676958

 

Partners for Sustainable Pollination (PFSP)

     

+ Works with farmers and beekeepers to improve the health of honey bees and support native pollinators.

 

+ Fosters awareness and support for providing increased availability of flowering plants to honey bees and native pollinators.

 

 

Our partners include:

 

 
•     Local conservation districts and growers.
 
•     Beekeeping and farm groups and other stakeholders.
 

 

Our advisors include leading honey bee scientists and native pollinator biologists.

 

PFSP-

 

 
•     Educates the public about the importance of bees and how to help support bee friendly farmers by purchasing their locally produced food.
 
•     Partners with local conservation districts in workshops for landholders interested in increasing forage value for pollinator and honey bee nutrition. 
 
•     Partners with beekeeping industry leaders in support of state and national policies and programs to improve honey bee health, including technical and financial assistance to help growers plant for bees.
 
•     Encourages bee friendly farmers to invite beekeepers to place hives on their land for forage.
 
•     Collaborates with lead scientists and other supporters involved in honey bee and native pollinator research.
 

 

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  One major factor in the decline of all bees is lack of food plants.

 PFSP is seeking to respond to this challenge by partnering with farmers and other landowners to help them (1) increase plantings of bee pasture and (2) invite beekeepers to pasture their bees.
 

 

 

Many key fruits, vegetables and nuts are almost totally reliant on pollination services provided by honey bees and their beekeepers. Pollinators are lynchpin species in healthy wildlife ecosystems.  Our nation's honey bees are seriously threatened, and native bees are also at risk. Honey bees are succumbing in record numbers, jeopardizing the continued viability of the commercial pollination industry and predictable and affordable pollination services for U.S. agriculture.

 

 

 

   The mysterious phenomenon of all the adult honey bees flying away from the hive, called colony collapse disorder (CCD), thus far does not appear to have a single cause. Researchers believe that colony collapse disorder (CCD) is likely the culmination of an overwhelming number of long term stresses including resistant varroa mites, old wax combs with disease and pesticides, reduced forage and reduced diversity of forage, poor bee nutrition, a depressed honey market, and increased movement of bees around the country that can spread disease and pests. The one common factor found in hives lost to CCD is nutritional stress due to lack of access to natural forage.

   The one proven action that can be taken to improve honey bee health is to improve access to high quality and safe forage. Natural forage and nutrition are essential to good honey bee health and to their ability to cope with pests, pathogens and other stressors. Improving forage for honey bees is a proven method of contributing to their health and sustainability. While smaller scale plantings for native bees are helpful, larger scale landscape plantings are needed to adequately meet the nutritional needs of managed honey bee colonies. Special consideration must be given to encouraging plantings of late summer and fall blooming plants to help hives survive through the winter to the next blooming season. 

 

    Beekeepers do not own sufficient lands to provide forage for their colonies. They must seek permission from willing landowners to access suitable and safe areas to "pasture" their bees. Historically, beekeepers have had access to bee forage after their bees finish pollinating crops. Over the decades, a combination of forces including urbanization and changes in agricultural practices, such as monoculture and agrochemical choices, has greatly decreased the acreage and sites available to beekeepers, creating a major bee pasture deficit.