Xerces Society for Pollinator Habitat

Project ID: NR223A750025C015

Federal Agency: Natural Resources Conservation Service

Partner Institution: The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Fiscal Year: 2022

Initial Funding: $190,000

Total Funding: $630,000

Principal Investigator: Vaughan, Mace

Agreement Technical Representative: Taliga, Christine

Abstract: This agreement would be to pay for Xerces Society time and expertise on pollinator species identification within the PLANTS database.

The purpose of this agreement, between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (Recipient), is to work cooperatively to update and integrate existing and well-documented pollinator/plant data sets developed by Xerces and others into a current platform developed by the PLANTS data team. This will greatly increase public access to pollinator/plant interactions data that are reliable and up to date and builds upon and supports more current efforts conducted by other federal agencies – including ARS and USGS – under the leadership of the Office of the Chief Scientist to share pollinator and climate change data and integrate these data on the PLANTS platform. Collaboration between NRCS and Xerces will greatly increase public access to pollinator/plant interactions data that are reliable and up to date. These data are critical for conservation planners in the development of seed mixes or planting plans for pollinator habitat using Farm Bill conservation programs. Through this agreement, NRCS and Xerces will work together to make these data accessible for use in the development of pollinator habitat for conservation planning on private working lands.