02-01-2018 Parks & Rec Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Pollinators are vital and their population is shrinking. Most ﬂowering plants across the world depend on pollinators like honey bees and monarch butterﬂies to produce fruit and seeds, but unfortunately many of the needed species are shrinking towards extinction. Xcel Energy is supporting the ﬁght to save the pollinators by looking for opportunities to plant milkweed (a plant essential in the lifecycle of monarchs) and other native nectar-producing plants along right-of-way corridors and other Xcel Energy land. With our northern service territory coinciding with the Monarch Migration Corridor from Minnesota to Texas, we see tremendous potential to be a leader in creating and restoring pollinator habitat, and educating interested customers who are eager to help. We currently have more than 1,100 acres of active pollinator habitat in Minnesota and Wisconsin and more than 200 acres in development. The projects include nearly 25 active and potential pollinator habitat sites in our Minnesota and Wisconsin territories. Xcel Energy and the contractors we employ do not use chemicals that are harmful to beneﬁcial insects in our Vegetation Management practices to control brush, trees and weeds on our rights-of-way and properties. This includes not using neonicotinoids, which is of special concern to people working to improve bee populations. Xcel Energy Pollinator Initiative Pollinator habitats typically take three to four years to begin thriving. First year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps! Xcel Energy has developed 20 acres of native prairie land around our High Bridge Generating Station in St. Paul. Xcel Energy partnered with the City of Cottage Grove and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to restore 60 acres of native prairie habitat in large areas of right-of-way under Xcel Energy transmission lines in the city. transmission.xcelenergy.com