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Great Barrington Pollinator Action Plan Connecting Habitat & Community

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Great Barrington Pollinator Action Plan Connecting Habitat & Community Great Barrington Pollinator Action Plan Connecting Habitat & Community The Great Barrington Pollinator Action Plan is an educational toolkit for identifying, prioritizing, and implementing pollinator habitat on sites across Great Barrington. While its analyses are specific to the town, its recommendations are broad enough to be used almost anywhere in the northeast United States. Anyone with access to a piece of land or sidewalk strip can use this plan. Through a collaborative effort, reaching across experiences, social strata, and ecosystems, the citizens of Great Barrington hope to establish a thriving, diverse, pollinator-friendly network, and inspire other communities to do so, too. Winter 2018 Evan Abramson • Elan Bills • Renee Ruhl Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 History & Context 6 Why Pollinators? 9 Environmental Conditions 22 Local Views 31 Opportunities in Great Barrington 33 Considerations in Planning a Pollinator Network 55 Toolkit 58 Resources 78 References 82 body Virginia Fringetree, Chionanthus virginicus (top) and the endangered rusty-patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis (bottom). Photographs courtesy Helen Lowe Metzman and USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab. 2 POLLINATOR ACTION PLAN Executive Summary: Life as We Know It Our responsibility is to species, not to specimens; to commu- Threats are also present: among them, the potential for nities, not to individuals. continued expansion of human development into the intact natural spaces that pollinators need. Pesticide use, —Sara Stein, Noah’s Garden particularly in large scale agriculture, is decimating pol- There is a worldwide phenomenon taking place, and it linator communities. Global climate change has shown to affects every element of life as we know it. Globally, disrupt natural cycles including the synchronization across the United States, and throughout Massachusetts, between bloom time and bee emergence (Yale E360). pollinator species are in decline. The exact causes of the This document maps the pollinator habitat potential for decline of each of the tens of thousands of species may Great Barrington’s diverse municipal properties, the 91 still be indefinite, yet much is already understood: with- miles of local roads the Department of Public Works out pollinators, human life and all terrestrial ecosystems maintains, the nearly 4,000 acres of active farmland in on earth would not survive. Pollination is not just fasci- the town, residential properties, schools, golf courses, nating natural history: it is an essential ecological func- streetscapes, and parking lots, and the potential for tion (U.S. Forest Service). establishing green roofs in the urban town center. These Opportunities According to the National Academy of Sciences, close to recommendations can be found in the three quarters of the flowering plants on earth rely on chapter. pollinators in order to reproduce. From these plants Along with the benefits of supporting pollinator survival, comes one-third of humankind’s food, and even greater Pollinator Action Plan recommendations offer additional proportions of food for wildlife. Citizens in Great advantage to the Town of Great Barrington, its Barrington, Massachusetts, are well aware of the risks Department of Public Works, and local farmers and gar- associated with pollinator collapse. Since 2016, they’ve deners. Such improvements can also provide favorable been working actively in the public realm to secure local outcomes for the school district, local residents, institu- legislation to protect and expand pollinator habitat in tions, businesses, and Massachusetts Department of their town. Transportation. For example, besides providing more This Pollinator Action Plan, produced in collaboration forage and habitat for pollinators, the benefits of modify- with the Town of Great Barrington Department of Public ing mowing frequency include reduced costs, better air Works, The Great Barrington Agricultural Commission, quality, lower noise levels, more water conservation, the Conway School, and key stakeholders across the improved infiltration, and healthier environment for region, proposes an interconnected pollinator habitat people and pets. Other measures such as pollinator strips network through Great Barrington, with scalable models and forage cover crops can help farms stabilize slopes, applicable to other towns and properties with different filter stormwater runoff, improve erosion control, dis- uses, to guarantee a healthy pollinator population in courage weeds, and sequester carbon. Great Barrington and across the Berkshire region. The Great Barrington Pollinator Action Plan is an edu- Great Barrington has a lot to offer pollinators: cational toolkit that could be picked up by anyone in the traversed by three rivers, it is situated in one of the most northeast region of the United States, and likely provide ecologically diverse regions in Massachusetts and south- enough information to identify and prioritize sites, and ern New England. Over one-third of the town’s 46 implement pollinator habitat in those areas. Anyone with square miles is protected land, and municipal lands com- access to a piece of land or sidewalk strip can use this prise nearly 336 acres. These municipal properties plan. Through a collaborative effort, reaching across include forests, parks, town buildings and their grounds, experiences, social strata, and ecosystems, the citizens of cemeteries, the Lake Mansfield Recreation Area, and the Great Barrington can build a thriving, lively, pollinator- McAllister Wildlife Refuge. About 6,000 acres is cur- friendly community—and inspire other communities to rently or was historically farmed, and large portions of do so, too. former farmland remain undeveloped today. All the nec- essary natural habitats exist to foster a thriving pollinator community. POLLINATOR ACTION PLAN 3 Introduction: Building a Local Movement The Town of Great Barrington has a long history of Friendly Community Resolution on behalf of the town political expression: in 1774, 1,500 men in Great Selectboard and Agricultural Commission, the Barrington shut down the Berkshire County Court in Department of Public Works (DPW) hired a Conway response to British oppression (Wikipedia, Great School team of students to devise a town-wide pollinator Barrington). Today, the town has a reputation for being plan, with the Agricultural Commission acting in an politically progressive, environmentally conscious, and advisory capacity. The goals for the plan included the culturally diverse. following: On May 9, 2016, Great Barrington became the first VISIBILITY municipality in New England to pass a Pollinator- Friendly Community Resolution. The resolution recog- • Identify centrally located demonstration sites for pol- nizes pollinators as essential to a healthy ecosystem and linator habitat local food system, and correlates their decline directly with widespread insecticide use. In many ways, this was • Provide public education and outreach components to following in the footsteps of the federal government, the plan whose National Strategy to Protect Pollinators and Their Habitat was released one year prior, focusing on not only SCALABILITY insecticides, but also industrial monocultures, habitat • Design replicable pollinator habitat models destruction, extreme weather, and disease as contribut- ing factors to the decline of pollinator populations. • Identify potential pollinator habitat corridors Great Barrington is a land rich in biodiversity: the town • Address regional food security through pollinator hab- hosts 45 Massachusetts Species of Conservation itat Concern, and over 17,000 acres are classified as “Critical Natural Landscape” by the Massachusetts Natural MANAGEABILITY Heritage & Endangered Species Program. Settled in the fertile Housatonic River Valley, Great Barrington has a • Recommend low maintenance plantings that are easy long history of agriculture, dating at least as far back as to establish the Mahican Native Americans (NHSEP, 2011a). Today, • Consider low cost and low water requirements locally grown crops such as apples, berries, squash, and nightshades all depend upon pollination. Well aware of • Focus on native species of plants the global pollinator crisis unfolding, the citizens of Great Barrington decided to take action. The Town of Great Barrington intends to use predomi- nantly town-owned and managed sites to enhance and Great Barrington’s resolution encourages the adoption of broaden pollinator activity. The Town wants to leverage policies that minimize the sale and use of insecticides in highly-trafficked downtown sites to springboard a local the town, and “urges all Great Barrington property own- pollinator movement, by educating the public with dem- ers, residents, businesses, institutions and neighbor- onstration gardens, interpretive signs, and educational hoods” to adopt the following practices: materials available on the town website and at town libraries, including this plan. These town properties can • Commit to avoid using insecticides thus serve as models for other properties at a variety of • Avoid planting flowering plants treated with systemic scales, and with a variety of land uses. This plan looks to insecticides foster native plant communities that are financially fea- sible and easy to maintain. • Plant more pollinator-supporting forage on their property Through alliances with area residents and property own- ers, farmers, gardeners, local businesses, schools, and In response to the unanimous support
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