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At Pollinate Minnesota, we’re working toward a MN that’s better for pollinators and people. www.pollinatemn.org erin@pollinatemn.org, 612.245.6384 Pollinator Friendly Resolution Best Practices Pollinator Friendly resolutions are a way to celebrate the pollinator friendly practices your municipality already has in place. They are also critical to changing practices to protect pollinators and are catalysts to bigger change in your communities, statewide and nationally. While all resolutions are pledges for pollinator protection, these best practices can add detail and scope to improve pollinator health in your community. Why pass a pollinator friendly resolution? •Pollinators like bees are critically important to our ecosystems and our food systems. And they’re struggling. As beekeepers in Minnesota in 2014-15, we lost 51% of our hives. Our over 400 species of native bee are also in decline. •The causes of pollinator decline are known. o Our ecosystems no longer have the abundance of clean flowering plants pollinators need. Bees are hungry; they need more flowers. Wild bees also need habitat. o Pollinators are exposed to pollinator lethal insecticides, including neonicotinoid and other systemic insecticides, which are used prophylactically in land management, agriculture, and nursery practices. o Pollinators suffer from parasites and disease, including the honey bee parasite the varroa mite. •Minnesotans care deeply about bees. As individuals, Minnesotans are doing what we can, choosing with our hearts, our dollars, and our trowels to help bees. It’s not enough. We need to change policy to curb pollinator declines. •MN State law preempts smaller municipalities’ ability to regulate pesticides, but doesn’t restrict a municipality’s treatment of the land it manages. Passing a pollinator friendly resolution sends the message that you care about this issue and are doing what you can with your own land. •YOUR MUNICIPALITY CAN BE A NATIONAL LEADER ON THE ISSUE. While a few cities have passed resolutions, this is a new trend, and one your municipality can be at the forefront of. Key pieces of strong resolutions Reducing pollinators’ exposure to pollinator lethal insecticides by eliminating use of neonicotinoids and other systemic insecticides. Neonicotinoid pesticides are a driving factor behind pollinator decline. At high doses, neonics can kill bees, butterflies and songbirds outright. At lower doses, neonics impair pollinators’ navigation, reproduction, communication, and immune system functioning. We’re seeing drift with neonics-the USGS found them in 75% of tested waterways in the Midwest, and recent research found higher concentrations in the pollen of wildflowers surrounding coated canola rapeseed fields than in the pollen of the canola flowers the neonic was applied to. Beyond neonicotinoids, many other pesticides, on their own or in combination, weaken pollinator health.