FSA Offering Options for Bee Habitat on CRP Land

With a national shortage of bee habitat looming, FSA is offering a program that can help farmers turn CRP land into bee-friendly areas.

Acting State Executive Director of the FSA in Washington Rod Hamilton said the program is part of the continuous CRP opportunities that don’t have a time frame where they need to be applied for.

“We ask them to plant a mix of grass and several species of flowering plants. The amount of species, the variety of species, and so forth depend a little bit on the moisture level where the land is located, the average precipitation.”

Hamilton said CRP is often used for land that is more challenging to farm and so it can be difficult to get the flowers and bee-friendly forage necessary, but it is possible.

Bee habitat and the future of pollinators has been getting a lot of attention recently with concerns over forage, colony collapse disorder and several other impacts Hamilton noted.

“This is just a way to try to provide more habitat, a little more variety of plants for them to obtain their nectar from. Just trying to help provide more habitat, more supporting infrastructure if you will for the pollinators.”

There is limited amounts of land available for this program, so Hamilton strongly recommended reaching out to them sooner rather than later if you’re interested.

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