Farming for Biodiversity: Farmscape Habitat Designs to Support Pollination Systems At Risk on Martha’s Vineyard
Farming for Biodiversity: Farmscape Habitat Designs to Support Pollination Systems At Risk on Martha’s Vineyard
The varied design areas in this Toolkit were selected because they represent common landscape “situations” on working vegetable, fruit and livestock farms. It is our hope and intention for them to be replicated on farms and on properties across Martha’s Vineyard, as well as the coastal Northeast. The designs were created to increase biodiversity and climate resiliency by attracting and sustaining the widest possible range of pollinator species, and in particular, species of the greatest conservation priority – in other words, species whose populations have been declining significantly in recent decades. Each design area targets a particular type of land use or ecological condition: the plant arrangements and lists can therefore be applied to any similar landscape. By replicating this Toolkit across Martha’s Vineyard as well as neighboring counties and states, the building blocks for a regional pollinator corridor will be established, and hopefully, many of these at-risk species will not only be attracted to our landscapes, but sustained.