MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2023. BY XERCES SOCIETY.
Many insect pollinators are declining in California, including bees and butterflies. The Western monarch population has declined more than 95% since the 1980s, likely due to multiple factors including habitat loss and degradation, pesticides, and climate change. One step we can take to protect these important animals is to increase the amount of habitat available to these species. To this end, The Xerces Society has been offering habitat kits that contain climate-smart native plants to project partners who are willing to provide the time, labor, and land to develop habitats that support monarchs and other pollinators in California since 2019. We are excited to inform you that our 2023 Habitat Kit season has launched!
Between 2019 and 2021, Xerces’ California Habitat Kits provided over 100,000 plants to 144 partners in California, resulting in acres of new, high quality habitat for monarch butterflies and pollinators.
WHO CAN APPLY?
Kits are intended to be used to create or enhance monarch and pollinator habitat on working lands, public lands, tribal lands and private/non-working lands recovering from wildfires, with landowner or land manager collaboration. This includes farms, ranches, tribal land, post-wildfire recovery areas, urban farms or gardens, city parks, school gardens or other public areas. The kits are not intended to be used in home gardens. We have kits available for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada Foothills, Central Coast and Coastal Foothills, and Southern California
We encourage private landowners of working lands to partner with their local Resource Conservation District (RCD) or other technical liaison on their projects.
Past applicants or recipients of this program are welcome to re-apply.
Please note that you are responsible for picking up your kit(s) when ready in October/November 2023. Kit pick up locations are as follows:
● Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Foothills kits: USDA NRCS Plant Materials Center, Lockeford CA
● Central Coast and Coastal Foothills kits: Our City Forest, San Jose, CA
● Southern California kits: Temecula Olive Oil company, Temecula, CA
HOW TO FILL OUT THE PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM
Monarch butterfly larvae. Photo: Charlie Starr IV.
Completing the form does not guarantee that your project will be selected. The form is your opportunity to demonstrate that your project is well designed and carefully thought out. Land managers can apply directly, or RCDs or other technical liaisons can apply on behalf of land managers. Please note that the name and email that you enter when you fill out the form is the default main point of contact for this project. You are responsible for notifying us if the project plans or point of contact change at any time.
Single kits are not designed to be divided into multiple projects, and we are not able to provide partial kits or to customize kits for specific projects. Participants must be able to use the entire kit/minimum order in one project but it can be divided up within the area. For example, several plantings within one county park, or several areas on a farm or ranch. If applying for kits for multiple projects, please fill out a separate application for each project.
If you are interested in receiving a kit(s), please complete the form by end-of-day April 3, 2023. Partners will be notified by May 5, 2023, if they will be receiving a kit. Kits will be available for pick-up in mid-October/November of 2023. If you have questions, please email us at: centralvalleypollinators@xerces.org. Click HERE for more information.
This year, we are offering several different kit types and sizes. Please take a minute to look through the different kit descriptions as well as the associated geographic regions, so you can determine which kit would be most appropriate for your project. All kits are comprised of native plants that have been identified as having high value to monarchs and other pollinators and are grown without the use of systemic pesticides that may be harmful to pollinators. Please note that kits are not certified organic.
Kits available:
Wildflower Grassland Kit. This kit contains 600 small herbaceous transplants (mostly ‘plugs’) including milkweed, flowering forbs, and some grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 5,400 square feet if planted on 3-foot spacing. Minimum order of one kit per project. Additional kits can be requested for larger projects. Available for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada Foothills and Central Coast and Coastal Foothill regions. Please note, this kit is not available for Southern California.
Riparian Wildflower Kit. This kit contains 600 small herbaceous transplants (mostly ‘plugs’), including milkweed, flowering forbs and some grasses/sedges. This kit contains plants that do well in riparian areas and can tolerate some seasonal flooding. Each kit will cover 5,400 square feet if planted on 3-foot spacing. Minimum order of one kit per project. Additional kits can be requested for larger projects. Available for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada Foothills and Central Coast and Coastal Foothill regions. Please note, this kit is not available for Southern California.
Hedgerow Kit. This kit contains 90 woody and herbaceous transplants including flowering shrubs and forbs, milkweed and native bunch grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 540 linear feet/5,400 square feet if planted on 6-foot spacing. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Minimum order of one kit per project. Additional kits can be requested for larger projects. Available for all regions.
Riparian Hedgerow Kit. This kit contains 90 woody and herbaceous transplants including flowering shrubs and forbs, milkweed and native bunch grasses/sedges. Each kit will cover approximately 540 linear feet/5,400 square feet if planted on 6-foot spacing. This kit contains plants that do well in riparian areas and can tolerate some seasonal flooding. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Minimum order of one kit per project. Additional kits can be requested for larger projects. Available for all regions.
Garden Kit. This kit contains 36 herbaceous transplants including milkweed, flowering forbs, and some grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 576 square feet when planted on 4-foot spacing. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Minimum order of one kit per project. Additional kits can be requested for larger projects. Available for all regions.
Milkweed-Free Garden Kit. This kit is available for projects that are within ~1 mile of the coast south of Santa Barbara or within ~5 miles of the coast north of Santa Barbara, where planting milkweed is not recommended. This kit contains 36 herbaceous transplants including flowering forbs and some grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 576 square feet when planted on 4-foot spacing. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Minimum order of one kit per project. Additional kits can be requested for larger projects. Available for the Central Coast and Southern California coastal regions.
If you need assistance filling out the application form, have questions about your project’s suitability or for requests for technical guidance on your project, please email us at: centralvalleypollinators@xerces.org.
Kit Regions and pick-up locations for California Habitat Kits.
This blog post is available as a PDF HERE.
ABOUT THE XERCES SOCIETY
The Xerces Society is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Our name (which is pronounced Zer-sees, or /ˈzɚˌsiz/) comes from the now-extinct Xerces blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces), the first butterfly known to go extinct in North America as a result of human activities. The Xerces blue’s habitat was destroyed by development in the sand dunes of San Francisco, and the species was declared extinct by the 1940s. For nearly 50 years, we have protected endangered species and their habitats, produced ground-breaking publications, trained thousands of farmers and land managers to conserve habitat, and raised awareness about the importance and plights of invertebrates in forests, prairies, deserts, and oceans. Our key program areas are pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation, and reducing pesticide use and impacts.
In 2020, the Lodi Winegrape Commission’s Research, Education, & Communication Committee contributed funding to expand the Xerces hedgerow efforts in the Lodi AVA to even more willing growers, since the demand for kits exceeded the amount which could be supplied via grant funding and the goals of the project align with those of the Commission. For more information on the benefits of planting vineyard hedgerows, click HERE.
TO SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE, PLEASE VISIT XERCES.ORG
Featured Image: Western monarch by Stephanie McKnight, Xerces Society.
Have something interesting to say? Consider writing a guest blog article!
To subscribe to the Coffee Shop Blog, send an email to stephanie@lodiwine.com with the subject “blog subscribe.”
To join the Lodi Growers email list, send an email to stephanie@lodiwine.com with the subject “grower email subscribe.”
To receive Lodi Grower news and event promotions by mail, send your contact information to stephanie@lodiwine.com or call 209.367.4727.
For more information on the wines of Lodi, visit the Lodi Winegrape Commission’s consumer website, lodiwine.com.
For more information on the LODI RULES Sustainable Winegrowing Program, visit lodigrowers.com/standards or lodirules.org.
