Revised State Wildlife Action Plans Offer New Opportunities for Pollinator Conservation in the USA

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The 56 US State Wildlife Action Plans provide strategic guidance and direction for the state, territorial, and federal wildlife and natural resource management agencies in the United States. Funding associated with these plans supports a broad spectrum of state wildlife diversity and nongame programs, state natural heritage programs, and state natural areas programs. The implementation of these plans is being coordinated by the state and territorial fish and wildlife agencies, which have legal management authority for much of the native pollinator diversity in the United States. Forty of the 56 plans published in 2005 included taxa from one or more pollinator groups, including representatives of the insect orders Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera (Insecta), as well as nectar-feeding bats and hummingbirds. We document specific examples of pollinator conservation projects that have been conducted by state fish and wildlife agencies between 2005 and 2015 in order to achieve conservation objecti...