What can I do now to promote pollinators?
Build community, Replace or Reduce, and just stop!

• Talk with your neighbors! Inform them about what you are doing on your lawn and how it will benefit them and your community.
• Promote available resources such as Cornell Cooperative Extension, sustainability centers, PRISM,  and the NYSDEC!
• Replace your turf grasses with native flowers such as dandelions, vetches, clovers, goldenrods, hypericum, bonesets, beebalms, and mints. Grasses are not pollinator food—create a “bee lawn"
• If you must mow, reduce the frequency that you mow, and allow only native flowering plants such as dandelions to grow as well. 
• Use tools such as YardMap to plan your landscaping and inform science
• Follow France: please just stop using pesticides that are linked to bee deaths, and lobby to have these pesticides banned
• Coordinate with local community gardens. Bumble bees can travel 3-12 miles from their hive to find honey! By creating this habitat, you are likely helping many others without even realizing it!
• Read: 10 things to think about before establishing pollinator habitat

What about ticks and Lyme disease?

Ticks, and Lyme will be with us for the foreseeable future. Pollinators may not be if we maintain the status quo.

• More research is needed, however one study found mowing regimes had no effect on starting tick populations in areas where they weren't before. 
• Limit rodent and deer access to your lawn and home
• More native habitat means more tick predators meaning less ticks! Foxes, opossum, raccoon, birds, beetles, ants, and spiders are your friends! They will limit ticks and Lyme hosts limiting Lyme!
• Risk of contracting Lyme disease is higher in fragmented forests with high rodent densities and low numbers of resident fox, opossum, and raccoons.
• Organize and demand more funding for Lyme disease research
• Promote the continuance of science based habitat management and adaptive management practices 

My community organization is seeking to work with municipalities in creating pollinator action plans like the one Albany created. What resources do we have?

• Talk with your neighbors! Inform them about what you are doing on your lawns, and how it will benefit them and your community.
• Bee assured of yourself and your efforts! Bees can travel up to 20 miles in search of food. You are likely helping many people in your community by creating pollinator habitat!
• Promote available resources such as Cornell Cooperative Extension, sustainability centers, PRISM, and the NYSDEC!
• Prosocial.world has been developed to empower small groups of all sorts.
• Read: 10 things to think about before establishing pollinator habitat

I am concerned about property value, am proud of the look of my lawn, and am concerned about my neighbor's unkempt lawn.

We should not place value on the destruction of our environment.

• When did a short green buzzcut become more sexy and valuable than a diverse field of flowers?
• Property value is set by the buyer's perception of your property. An easy to maintain "bee lawn" is a lot nicer looking than a manicured, mono-cultured turf grass lawn! Don't slack off and be proud of your "bee lawn" not your grass lawn. Your property's value will likely go up in many people's eyes!
• This amendment will enable a cultural shift toward valuing life. We should not judge or be judged by the quality of our lawns, but by our commitment to our community's vitality.
• Pollinators help out in your neighbor's gardens and local farms, increasing crop yields; biodiversity loss is to detriment of everyone.
• Bees can travel up to 20 miles in search of food. They are likely helping many people in your community, including your garden by creating pollinator habitat!
• We should not place value on the destruction of our environment.