SNOW HILL – The Lower Shore Land Trust has introduced a new certification program that promotes pollinator-friendly practices.
For the first year, the nonprofit will offer a certification program to those interested in creating or growing a certified pollinator garden.
Michelle Winters, who works at the Lower Shore Land Trust as an AmeriCorps service member, said the program gives individuals access to resources that help build and promote a pollinator garden.
“It’s just trying to encourage people to plant pollinator-friendly plants,” she said. “It’s encouraging people to plant and have that there for them.”
Winters said pollinators’ habitats are often lost because of development or fragmentation, requiring bees, butterflies and birds to fly farther for food, water and shelter. The program, she explained, promotes management techniques that bolster pollinator habitats.
Those who apply for the certification must meet certain criteria. For example, pollinator gardens must have at least three food sources, two water sources, two forms of shelter and eight conservation practices. This can mean adding feeders, birdbaths and basking sites, introducing native plants, eliminating or reducing chemical fertilizers and more.
Winters said the pollinators that benefit from the gardens are crucial to the area’s crops and flowers. According to the U.S. Forest Service, 150 food crops in the U.S. and 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants depend on pollinators.
“It’s really important because they continue to pollinate our flowering and crop plants,” she said. “They benefit from this program because they are doing beneficial things for our environment as it is.”
Gardens that are approved by the Land Trust will receive a “Pollinator Friendly” sign and access to annual pollinator certification workshops. Approved gardens will also be registered with the Million Pollinator Garden campaign, an online campaign to register a million public and private gardens that support pollinators.
Though a limited number have already signed up, Winters said the nonprofit is already looking to the future, with plans to recognize pollinator gardens that are certified through the program.
The certification program is just one of the many initiatives local individuals and towns are taking to support pollinators.
In May, Salisbury University students from the school’s environmental studies program partnered with the Town of Berlin to plant two pollinator gardens, both at the town’s spray site on Purnell Crossing Road.
Winter encourages individuals to complete an interest form and application for the certification program at www.lowershorelandtrust.org.
