What do you think of when you see acres of grassy pasture? For pollinators, pastureland represents a food desert as grasslands do not provide the pollen and nectar resources they rely on for survival.

We are an interdisciplinary team from Virginia Tech, the University of Tennessee, and Virginia Working Landscapes collaborating on a multi-year project to increase habitat for pollinators in pastures.

Using a seed mix designed to be nontoxic to cattle, we are integrating native wildflowers into existing pastureland in Virginia and Tennessee and will be studying their impact on local pollinator communities, cattle health, and more.

Study Site Locations

Funding

This research is generously funded by a grant from the USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant program and the USDA NIFA.