The City of College Park and Bee City USA Committee encourage residents to refrain from mowing their lawns during the month of April to support local pollinators! Pollinators are necessary for the reproduction of native plants as well as food crops, without them we wouldn’t be here! However, many of our native pollinator species are at risk especially in urban areas, in part because they have lost much of their habitat to development (buildings, roads, and manicured lawns). Participating in No Mow April is a small and easy step we can take to help early-season pollinators foraging for food sources and habitat.

Now that No Mow April is upon us, we want to see what types of pollinators are visiting College Park. During the early spring months of March and April, pollinators such as the docile mason and leafcutter bee begin to emerge and search for food and nesting places. This can be a difficult endeavor for pollinators, due to the loss of habitat and native plant species. Much of the nectar and pollen available to pollinators during this time of year is found in our lawns in the form of flowering plants, like the native common blue violet, and non-natives like Dutch clover, and dandelion. Mowing the lawn or applying herbicides to flowering weeds during this critical time can decrease already scarce food options making it even harder for dwindling pollinator populations to survive, much less thrive. When we stop to think that 75% of all food crops rely on pollinators for food production, we start to see that their plight is also ours. There is no registration for No Mow April -- the College Park City Council passed Resolution 22-R-13 to permanently designate April as No Mow Month and waive the tall grass enforcement for College Park residents during April.

You may be wondering what kind of pollinators you will observe in your own yard. While many of us are most familiar with the European honeybee, Maryland alone has over 400 species of native bees as well as more than 150 different kinds of butterflies. Other pollinators include ants, beetles, wasps, moths and even the ruby-throated hummingbird. But with pollinator populations in sharp decline, efforts are being made to track the presence of different species geographically. Sometimes called a BioBlitz, these short-term efforts rely on everyday citizen scientists, such as school-aged children, hobbyists, retirees, or anyone with a little patience and a smartphone, to track what they observe in a specified place over a specified time. While these efforts can range in complexity regarding how and when information is collected, the overall goal is to establish a baseline of the numbers and types of pollinators present in an area, and, equally important, to motivate people to learn more about the natural world around them.

The College Park Bee City USA Committee encourages anyone who is interested in better understanding the pollinators in our area to step outside and look for pollinators visiting the flowering plants (trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals) in their own yard. Observing and documenting pollinators with photography can be a fun activity to engage children, family, friends, and neighbors. Who can find the most unique pollinator? Who found the most variety of pollinators? Who took the clearest picture? All you need to do is:

• Bring a smartphone or digital camera.
• Designate an area to observe.
• From a safe distance (though most pollinators do not sting), take pictures of the different visitors you see gathering nectar and pollen from flowers.
• Ask questions like: Are you seeing the same types of pollinators? What type or color of flowers do they seem to prefer? Where do they live?
• Anyone wishing to ID what they observe can send their pictures to the Bee Committee pollinator experts at nomowapril@collegeparkmd.gov.
• Compare notes with others citizen scientists, and research the pollinators you observe.

Citizen scientists play an important role in helping to map and address the decline of pollinators. Let’s begin to explore what types of early spring pollinators are found in our city!

Visit www.collegeparkmd.gov/pollinators for tips, lists of native pollinator-friendly plants and local nurseries where pollinator-friendly plants can be purchased, and other pollinator-friendly information. You can also help pollinators thrive by eliminating pesticide use and by replacing your lawn (or even just small portions of it!) with native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers.

From the City's Bee City Committee