San Luis Obispo County farmer Lisen Bonnier of Vintage Organics has a stretch of her farmland that has never grown crops well.
It floods and has always been generally “problematic,” she said.
So when an opportunity arose for her to re-think how the area could be used and she was able to obtain 170 native plants attractive to pollinators such as monarch butterflies and bumblebees, Bonnier jumped at it.
“This is something I can make a difference with,” she said. “I would like to have good pollinator habitat here, and we need to think more about not just ourselves, but the impact on everyone — my neighbors who grow pumpkins and squash and other crops who also need pollinators.”
Bonnier is one of several grantees across San Luis Obispo County and California who have received free native pollinator-friendly plants from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
“One of the reasons monarchs and other pollinators are declining is a loss of habitat. So anything we can add makes a difference,” said Angela Laws, an endangered species conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.The Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District — a nonprofit that works to restore natural resources in the county — also worked to help both landowners get the plants and find volunteers to help plant them.
https://www.sanluisobispo.com/article255531351.html
They're doing some great work down there. Hope it catches on elsewhere around the country!
