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Congress seems ready to pass the Recovering America's Wildlife Act (RAWA), described by New York Times writer Margaret Renkl as "the single most effective tool in combating biodiversity loss since the Endangered Species Act." Pollinators would be included in the species helped by this legislation. Read Renkle's OpEd here. Watch the National Wildlife Foundation's informational video here. The House passed the the bill last week with bipartisan support, and now it heads to the Senate where it has 16 Republican co-sponsors. Let's support this bill by contacting our senators and asking them to support RAWA! And thanking them if they are co-sponsors! Find your senators' emails here.

Widespread and wasteful use of neonicotinoid pesticides drives dramatic declines in bees and other pollinators, which threaten the production of crops like apples, the food security of millions of people, and the nation’s ecosystems. Neonics also contaminate water on a vast scale and are increasingly linked to countless other harms, including the disappearance of birds, the collapse of fisheries, and birth defects in white-tailed deer. Neonics extensively contaminate our bodies too, with a growing chorus of state health experts raising alarms about neonics’ risks to human health. Watch this short film for more information. Maine and New Jersey have banned neonics for non-agricultural uses, and Europe has passed broad bans that include agricultural. New York came close this year to passing the Birds and Bees Protection Act, which would restrict neonic use in the state, both cosmetic and agricultural uses. After stalling in the Assembly in 2021, the bill passed there in April by a vote of 103-41—buoyed by a strong showing of health experts, advocates, farmers, and concerned New Yorkers at a September 2021 Assembly hearing. In the Senate, the bill made it all the way to the floor, where it had passed last year by a vote of 43-20. This year, however, the bill did not come up for a vote. In the end, advocates won the argument that restrictions on uses of neonics—the most ecologically damaging pesticides since DDT and a growing concern for human health—are common sense. Ultimately, however, it appears that election-year concerns about passing a bill strongly opposed by the chemical industry prevailed. Despite the setback, the need to rein in harmful neonic use remains undiminished. We’re heartened by the progress New York made this year—including an early 2022 announcement by the state Department of Environmental Conservation that it would make most outdoor neonic pesticides “restricted use” by 2023—and we hope to help move the ball even further next year. ("Restricted use" means only licensed pesticide applicators can use the pesticides, but that includes most landscaping companies, golf courses, and farms.) Thank you to the NRDC for supporting the Birds & Bees Protection Act and for providing the information in this blog, including the following: · Neonic exposure is linked to neurological damage and malformations of the developing human heart and brain—and CDC monitoring shows half the U.S. population has neonics in their bodies on any given day. Dozens of New York health experts have warned state leaders about neonics’ threats to New Yorkers’ health. · State and federal water testing finds neonics extensively contaminate New York’s waters at levels expected to cause “ecosystem-wide damage,” and since most tests only look for 1 of 5 neonics used in New York, even these alarming results greatly underestimate the true extent of the problem. · In-depth Cornell University research reveals that the neonic uses targeted by the bill—neonic-treated corn, soybean, and wheat seeds and non-agricultural lawn and garden uses—either don’t benefit users or are easily replaced with safer alternatives. These needless and harmful uses account for 80-90% of the neonics entering New York’s environment every year.

A few of the nurseries that are involved with Eco59 and CT NOFA's Ecotype Project have put together an end of spring plant sale at the The Hickories Farm in Ridgefield, CT. They are offering seed grown ecotypes, certified organic ecotype seedlings, plug trays - a whole mix of different growers/growing practices/tray sizes/price points/etc. It runs from now until June 25th. On that day, the Pollinator Pathway’s Garden Tours are running all over Connecticut, one of which will be at The Hickories where you can tour the seed farm. Use this late season plant sale to fill in any gaps in your garden before summer gets underway. Join the Pollinator Pathway for a tour of Eco59 seed production and pickup your order of native seedlings at The Hickories. Order Your EcoType Project Plants Today for Pickup June 25 at the Hickories Organic Farm in Ridgefield, CT More Information Here

Thank you to everyone who helped get a new pesticide bill passed in CT. The bill will ban chlorpyrifos from golf courses, where it is still widely used in CT despite the EPA's banning it from use on food products. This pesticide is notorious for its extreme toxicity. It is known to harm children's developing brains and is listed as one of five pesticides most toxic to bees. The restrictions on pollinator-killing neonics were stricken from the bill before the House vote, so PLEASE JOIN US NEXT YEAR WHEN WE RAISE A NEW BILL IN CT TO RESTRICT NEONICS! We cannot do this work without you.

For Earth Week, CBS news profiled two of the original organizers of the Pollinator Pathway in a not-yet-cleaned-up backyard in Norwalk, CT. #leavetheleaves! The spot was focused on waiting to clean up, loving a messier yard, and No Mow May! Hundreds of people from across 30 states who saw the segment emailed to join. Welcome everyone. Watch the short clip here.

We have a bill, much like the one that just passed in New Jersey, to ban the most harmful neonicotinoids from use on commercial and residential landscapes. These pesticides are known to harm pollinators, birds, fish, pets and people. Let's get them off of lawns, golf courses, and commercial landscapes. It is time to call your state senator and state assemblyman (find them here) and ask them to PLEASE SUPPORT SB 120. Read a sample script and more information about the bill here. Read more about neonics here and chlorpyrifos, the other pesticide this bill addresses, here.

Senator Cory Booker has introduced legislation to reform the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which regulates the registration and use of pesticides. This important bill addresses some of the most harmful aspects of the current law by banning the most damaging pesticides that have been scientifically proven to harm people and our environment. Each year, the United States uses over a billion pounds of pesticides — nearly a fifth of worldwide use. Once they’re approved, pesticides often remain on the market for decades, even when scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows a pesticide is causing harm to people or the environment. Please join the Pollinator Pathway in supporting the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2021. Our partners at Beyond Pesticides are making it easy to have your voices heard on this issue. >>Urge your Senators to co-sponsor PACTPA and reforms to the toxic core of FIFRA. Approximately one-third of annual U.S. pesticide use — over 300 million pounds from 85 different pesticides — comes from pesticides that are banned in the European Union. The pesticide regulation statute, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972 (FIFRA), contains many loopholes that put the interests of the pesticide industry above the health and safety of people and our environment. Specifically, the bill, the Protect America's Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2021 (PACTPA), would provide some desperately needed improvements to FIFRA to better protect people and the environment, including: 1. Bans some of the most damaging pesticides scientifically known to cause significant harm to people and the environment: Organophosphate insecticides, which are designed to target the neurological system and have been linked to neurodevelopmental damage in children; Neonicotinoid insecticides, which have contributed to pollinator collapse around the world (the European Union and Canada have significantly restricted or banned their use to protect pollinators and other wildlife) and have recently been shown to cause developmental defects, heart deformations, and muscle tremors in unborn children; Paraquat, which is one of the most acutely toxic herbicides in the world—according to the EPA, just “one sip can kill.” Science has shown that chronic exposure to paraquat increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 200% to 600%. It is already banned in 32 countries, including the European Union. 2. Restores balance to protect ordinary citizens by removing dangerous pesticides from the market by: Creating a petition process to enable individual citizens to petition the EPA to identify dangerous pesticides so that the EPA would no longer be able to indefinitely allow dangerous pesticides to remain on the market; Closing dangerous loopholes that have allowed the EPA to issue emergency exemptions and conditional registrations to use pesticides before they have gone through full health and safety review by the agency; Enabling local communities to enact protective legislation and other policies without being vetoed or preempted by state law; Suspending the use of pesticides deemed unsafe by the E.U. or Canada until they are thoroughly reviewed by the EPA. 3. Provides protections for frontline communities that bear the burden of pesticide exposure by: Requiring employers of farmworkers to report all pesticide-caused injuries to the EPA, with strong penalties for failure to report injuries or retaliating against workers; Directing the EPA to review pesticide injury reports and work with the pesticide manufacturers to develop better labeling to prevent future injury; Requiring that all pesticide label instructions be written in Spanish and in any language spoken by more than 500 pesticide applicators. The FIFRA law currently permits the unnecessary dispersal of toxic chemicals into the environment. To protect pollinators and people, we join our partners at Beyond Pesticides in calling for Congress to go further in reforming FIFRA and to: 1. Prohibit the registration and use of pesticides that do not meet these criteria: Necessary to prevent harm to humans and the environment based on an analysis of all alternatives;Cause no harm to humans and the environment; and Protect against the existential crises of biodiversity collapse, runaway climate change, and chronic and acute health threats. 2. Require all supporting data to be submitted and examined by the public before registration (including the elimination of conditional registration). 3. Deny and cancel all pesticide registrations not supported by studies demonstrating a lack of endocrine-disrupting effects. 4. Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to life in the soil—and hence threatening the climate. 5. Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to any endangered species. A list of the organizations endorsing the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act can be found The full text of the legislation can be viewed here.

As the O’Hara Nature Center (ONC) has grown and developed from 2012 to its present state, the grounds and gardens offer sustainable ways to demonstrate what is possible around creating mini bio-intensive ecosystems. These systems support a diverse array of native flora and pollinating fauna in a dense suburban area in Southern Westchester, New York, that suffers from heavy and constant deer pressure. In 2020, the ONC was selected to be a part of a yearlong study by Cornell Waste Management Institute to collect data on the native flora from the eleven educational gardens, as well as the pollinators that relied on these plants as a food source. Once I collected the pollinator data, I uploaded it onto the citizen science platform iNaturalist. Then, Cornell Waste Management Institute shared it with the New York State Department of Transportation, who took the collected data to develop topsoil seed mixtures for roadside pollinating strips throughout New York State. A link to a presentation on the final research work can be found here: (https://bit.ly/3zK9u9g). Through this research, we discovered that over 150 pollinators rely on the native plants in the gardens located at the ONC that cover less than an acre of property! From these 150 identified pollinators, a “vulnerable species,” the Northern Golden Bumblebee (Bombus fervidus) was identified. These positive findings demonstrate the impact native plants play on supporting, and possibly rehabilitating, land that was once underused. These areas can help maintain a robust and diverse community of plant and animal life. The current work at the ONC (2021 – present) examines how best practices and management systems inform educational programming with the Irvington School District. A one-year pilot program is underway with the Irvington Middle and High School Vocational Independence Program (VIP). Three times a week, students and their classroom teachers, along with the ONC staff, work on skills and concepts in horticulture, as well as landscape management on the grounds and in the ONC gardens. These skills are developed into a yearlong program that focuses on management, development, and sustainable solutions in landscape management. This program promotes independence for students who represent a diverse array of learners with a diverse set of abilities. They are enabled to develop personal and life skills that focus on their strengths. This important work is all centered on the ONC’s mission of sustainability and community-driven experiences. To follow along with our programming and events, please visit the Irvington Woods Website: https://www.theirvingtonwoods.org/.

By Heidi Wendel Nelsonville, the Putnam County village next to Cold Spring, is called the “Hikers Hamlet” for its walkable access to the trails of the northern Hudson Highlands, as well as its own woodland preserve at the foot of the northern Highlands. But like everyplace else in the Hudson Valley, invasive plants are a problem in the village. As part of a plan to tackle invasives and create pollinator habitat, in fall 2019, residents got together to remove a longstanding field of Mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris) and replace it with a pollinator garden on a village parcel of about an eighth of an acre, a block from the village hall. The village volunteers followed these simple steps to remove the densely packed patch of 3-foot tall mugwort and replace it with a colorful, vibrant garden the butterflies love: Step1: We pulled out all of the mugwort to remove the roots while avoiding extensive shoveling/disturbance of the soil. Step 2: We laid down cardboard over the entire area, in overlapping sheets. Volunteers purchased rolls of corrugated cardboard to avoid using cardboard with print on it. Re-using delivery boxes sounds good, but unfortunately the vast majority of delivery boxes have print on them that is toxic. An added advantage to corrugated cardboard rolls, in addition to being print-free, is that they are very easy to roll out, particularly with the corrugated side upwards, which holds the dirt layer very well. Step 3: We spread about 10 cubic yards of compost over the cardboard. Step 5: Next volunteers planted deer-resistant anchoring shrubs, including low-bush blueberry and nine-bark; as well as perennials favored by pollinators, such as butterfly weed, bee-balm, lance-leaf coreopsis (tickseed), goldenrod, native sunflowers, blue mistflower, echinacea, among others. Step 6: To prevent mugwort from migrating back to the garden from a neighboring, privately-owned property, volunteers dug a narrow trench between the village garden and the neighboring mugwort patch. The trench is about two inches wide and four inches deep, and was filled with rocks and pieces of brick – anything that would prevent the mugwort roots from breaking through. In its first spring/summer, the garden had to be watered daily and weeded twice a week for two months. After about two months, the mugwort that had popped back up in the garden (through the cardboard, compost and chips) was almost gone. After all the sweat and effort the volunteers put in, the garden has been a major attraction in Nelsonville. Residents and tourists alike love it -- both of the human and animal varieties. Numerous monarch caterpillars can be found hatching from eggs on the butterfly weed and resident and migrating birds stop off to eat the seeds and the insects that make their home on the plants. It’s a big success that village residents hope to replicate elsewhere. Heidi Wendel lives in Nelsonville NY and loves hiking with her family. In her own yard, she replaced both the front and back lawns with native plant gardens and has been rewarded by such lovely sights as indigo buntings, bluebirds and grosbeaks; as well as many different kinds of butterflies, moths, bees and other insects.

Please take action TODAY by calling your legislators and asking them to support legislation to PROTECT PEOPLE, PETS and POLLINATORS from toxic pesticides. Neonicotinoids linked to declines in bee populations, also impact 80% of all threatened and endangered species including nearly 70 mammal species, 77 bird species and scores of others, NRDC. Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate, has devastating impacts on our health & children’s developing brains. Monarch butterfly populations are down 90% in the last 20 years, National Wildlife Federation Freshwater ecosystems show an 83% decline in vertebrate populations since 1970, UN Center for Biodiversity. North American bumble bees are in decline up to 96%, University of Illinois. It’s time for CT to join NY, NJ and other neighboring states in calling for more comprehensive protections from harmful pesticides used for purely cosmetic purposes. The continued use of dangerous pesticides is responsible for unacceptable risk to our children, alarming impacts on bee populations, and risks to other life-sustaining species. Please call your state representatives and ask them to urge members of the Environment Committee to raise bills during the upcoming legislative session that would take the following action: (1) Update Connecticut’s 2016 Pollinator Protection Law to keep neonicotinoids off CT lawns. Current law bars these pesticides from retail sale but allows their use on residential properties by certified pesticide applicators, including most lawn-care professionals. Neonicotinoids are known to be one of the major factors in the death of pollinators as well as other wildlife including many endangered species. Lawns are the largest known source of neonic pollution in urban/suburban areas. In NJ, which unlike CT tracks digitally where pesticides are used, lawn care use by certified applicators was the single largest tracked use in the state by a considerable margin. (2) Ban Chlorpyrifos on Golf Courses. Dow’s nerve gas pesticide chlorpyrifos has devastating impacts on our health, children’s developing brains, and our environment. The federal government has banned chlorpyrifos on food crops, but 90% of chlorpyrifos usage in CT is on golf courses for cosmetic purposes. (3) Require DEEP to develop an electronic filing system for certified pesticide applicators which would modernize the collection of this critical data. Currently, pesticide applicators file paper forms which are filed in boxes in Hartford making it very difficult for anyone (policy makers or the public) to have a clear picture of which pesticides are being used, in what quantities, where, and for what intended purposes. We are up against the powerful chemical industry that has tremendous influence in Hartford. The only way our legislators will take action to PROTECT PEOPLE, PETS AND POLLINATORS IS IF THEY HEAR FROM US! Please call or e-mail your State Representative and State Senator TODAY! Below are their phone numbers, a link to find out who your elected officials are and a sample script. Please share far and wide! House Democrats – 860-240-8500 House Republicans – 860-240-8700 Senate Democrats – 860-240-8600 Senate Republicans – 860-240-8800 Not sure who your elected officials are, CLICK HERE https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/cgafindleg.asp Sample Script to Legislator: I’m calling today to ask you to support legislation that will protect people, pets and pollinators by restricting purely cosmetic uses of harmful pesticides. Connecticut has not taken action on pesticides since 2016. Now is the time to take the following action: (1) Update Connecticut’s 2016 Pollinator Protection Law by expanding the neonicotinoid ban on bee-killing neonicotinoids to include use on residential properties by certified pesticide applicators. (2) Ban Chlorpyrifos on Golf Courses. Dow’s nerve gas pesticide chlorpyrifos has devastating impacts on our health, children’s developing brains, and our environment. The federal government has banned chlorpyrifos on food, but 90% of chlorpyrifos usage in CT is on golf courses. (3) Require DEEP to develop an electronic filing system for certified pesticide applicators which would modernize the collection of critical data. Currently, pesticide applicators are required to file paper forms which are then filed in boxes not easily accessible to policymakers or the public. It is time for these filings to become electronic to ensure transparency about which pesticides are being used, where, and how much in CT. As your constituent, I urge you to support bills on these topics during the upcoming legislative session and please speak to the members of the Environment Committee and ask them to raise these bills. Thank you.

A new source for seeds and plants native to the Ecoregion 59, the Northeastern Coastal Zone, produced on local farms from seed wild-collected by botanists across the ecoregion. Order seeds for your garden or for larger restoration projects from Eco59.com. Please ask your local nursery to stock Ecotype Project plants now available from Planter’s Choice wholesale supplier. Pollinator enthusiasts, regenerative gardeners, and conservationists can now find a source of locally grown, native, wildflower seeds: a much-awaited contribution to our northeastern ecosystem. It is a good season for it: early winter holidays are the perfect time for sowing native wildflowers. Eco59: a farmer-led seed collective has launched its first season of sales. Catalyzed by the work of the Pollinator Pathways and CT NOFA’s Ecotype Project, a group of farmers have been working together, learning to grow a new crop: seeds of regionally appropriate wildflowers, called ecotypes, for pollinator habitat restoration. The new seed company seeks to build a “triple bottom line”: seed that is good for the pollinators and the planet, profitable for farmers, and adds to the beauty of our landscape. Profit from the sales of Eco59 goes to fund conservation work across our ecoregion. Dina Brewster, farmer at The Hickories and a member of the Eco59 seed collective notes, “An important part of the Eco59 mission is to heal a broken landscape. The systematic displacement of people, the destruction of the environment, and the consequent loss of abundance around us is a direct result of not honoring the relationship that indigenous people of this area had with land. I view our work, growing ecotypic seed to restore native plants in the northeast, as a reminder of all that has been lost and all that we must work to restore.” After three years of tending their crops of perennial wildflowers, Eco59 farmers have now harvested, cleaned, tested, and packaged their seeds for sale to “re-wild” the landscape of ecoregion 59, a broad swath of the New England corridor championed by the Pollinator Pathway, the Massachusetts Pollinator Network and other like-minded groups. Rewilding is a term used extensively by Heather McCargo at Maine’s Wild Seed Project, another organization whose goal is to inspire people to take action in increasing the presence of native plants grown from wild seed. McCargo’s work, in addition to the writing of Doug Tallamy and John Marzluff, motivates the farmers in this collective. “Having a pesticide free corridor of native plants that provide nutrition and habitat for pollinators helps them to disperse into new areas and will improve the overall health of the farm and local ecosystem,”says Patrick Horan of Waldingfield Farm in Washington, Connecticut. Planters Choice, a Connecticut based major grower has joined the action. They have partnered with CT NOFA to procure the seeds from the Eco59 Collective and can provide standard eco-region plugs in bulk to local nurseries. More recently, Urbanscapes Native Plant Nursery, in Newhallville, New Haven CT, announced that they will be installing the first of three founder plots with White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata) using seeds from the Ecotype project. To revitalize this section of New Haven, the nursery educates local youth in native plant propagation and their founder plot will provide a great resource for producing and sharing ecotypic seed with their neighborhood supporters and the work they lead with the Pollinator Pathway of New Haven. Your Role: Please help grow the demand so that more growers like Planters Choice invest in ecotypic seeds. Shop at urban and suburban ecotype plant sales, and most importantly, spread the word and ask your local nursery to stock ecotype plants. The nurseries can contact Planter’s Choice or they can educate their growers on how to order ecotype seeds. This will help propel eco59, native wild flowers, to commercial viability. You can shop for seed, gifts, and read about the participating farmers on the Eco59 website. Each seed packet details where the original ecotype was collected (city and state) and which farm and farmer grew it. “Know your farmer; know your seed; know your land. We promote transparency in seed packaging and in growing practices: something we encourage gardeners and conservationists to be asking about more often through our educational outreach,” says Sefra Alexandra, CT NOFA’s Ecotype Project leader. Early winter is the perfect time to winter sow native seed - instructions for growing are inside each order as well as on the Eco59 website. In addition to the seed packets, the farmers are producing “seed bombs,” a dozen quail-egg sized balls made of clay and soil infused with a pinch of wildflower seed, for sowing “here, there, and everywhere.” Customers interested in larger quantities of seed for larger scale restoration projects should contact the seed company directly through the website: eco59.com.