Pollinators in the Landscape

Bee Campus USA

In 2016, The North Carolina Arboretum was designated as the seventh educational institution in the nation — and first campus in North Carolina — to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation designed to marshal the strengths of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators.

As part of the Bee Campus USA certification, the Arboretum established a specific Bee Campus USA committee to develop a Campus Pollinator Habitat Plan and include a locally-native, pollinator-friendly plant list with regional sources for such plants and a least-toxic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan. The plant list and IPM plan offer a valuable landscape-management model applicable to other local landscapes. All Bee City Campuses must reapply each year and report their accomplishments from the previous year.

Plant Lists

• Top 25 Pollinator Plants for the Piedmont Region, prepared by Debbie Roos,  sustainable agriculture agent, N.C. Cooperative Extension. [Addresses plants that are adapted for warmer plant hardiness zones as well as overlapping with Zone 6 plants. The Arboretum gardens are located in plant hardiness Zone 6.]
• Tips on Gardening with and for Pollinator Species from the U.S. Forest Service

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on the long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques, such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices and use of resistant varieties.

The North Carolina Arboretum’s IPM program employs the following:

Choosing Proper Plant Material for the Garden Site (i.e. “right plant, right place”)

• Selecting drought tolerant and disease resistant plant varieties
• Scouting for healthy nursery stock before purchasing or planting in garden sites
• Designing a landscape plan that selects plants for the site’s conditions

Daily and Weekly Monitoring of Plants in the Gardens and Seasonal Exhibits

• Correctly identifying pests and diseases to understand which management approaches will be most effective
• CountingPest population to determine if the pest population is at or past the threshold and if a threat to plant health exists due to pest population.

Utilizing Combinations of IPM Management Tools

• Biological controls – Apply natural products like horticultural oils or predatory insects to combat the pest organism
• Cultural practices – Water under the plant foliage to keep foliage dry; grooming plants to create air flow and support healthy growth.
• Mechanical practices – Mulch for weed management and disease pathogen suppression; hand collecting harmful insect species
• Chemical control – Apply pesticides as a last resort to resolving a pest or disease issue

Fertilization and Watering

• Take a soil sample annually to understand soil pH and fertility levels/needs
• Understand the water needs for plants during each growing season and adjust watering regime to suit
• Water lawns deeply and less often to encourage deep roots and healthy turf grasses and turn all clippings into the lawn to return the plant matter and nitrogen it contains to the soil thereby reducing the use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers

IPM Record Keeping

• Log in garden locations and plant host names for any and all infestations, including pest or disease presence, life stage and counts
• Record history of past problems and method of controls applied
• Record current method or treatment control applied