Four issues of Agroforestry Notes about pollinator conservation are available thanks to a collaboration between the National Agroforestry Center and the Xerces Society.

Agroforestry: Sustaining Native Bee Habitat for Crop Pollination

Improving Forage for Native Bee Crop Pollinators

Enhancing Nest Sites for Native Bee Crop Pollinators

Pesticide Considerations For Native Bees In Agroforestry

by Mace Vaughan and Scott Black.

In 2006 and 2007, the USDA's National Agroforestry Center published a four-issue series on pollinator conservation in Agroforestry Notes. These technical notes are designed to provide professional agroforesters (and those interested in agroforestry practices) with the information they need to design or adjust agroforestry plantings to have the greatest benefit to native bees and, subsequently, other pollinators.

The first issue (Number 32) provides an overview of the habitat needs of crop-pollinating native bees. Subsequent issues address more specifically how nectar and pollen sources (Number 33), nest sites (Number 34), and pesticide refugia (Number 35) all can be provided in practices like riparian buffers, wind breaks, forest farming, silvopasture, or alley cropping.

For more information on the National Agroforestry Center and their publications, please visit their website: http://www.unl.edu/nac/index.htm.