Protecting Pollinators: How to Save the Creatures that Feed Our World - Released Today

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Birds, bats, insects, and many other pollinators are disappearing, putting entire ecosystems in jeopardy. In North America and Europe, bee and butterfly populations have plummeted by a third or more. Worldwide, half of the 200,000 species of pollinators are threatened. Threats to pollinators abound, but so too do the everyday conservation efforts being taken to protect them.

In Protecting Pollinators: How to Save the Creatures that Feed Our World, beekeeper and journalist Jodi Helmer explores why pollinator decline has become so dire and how it can be reversed. The book offers a hopeful vision for the future of pollinators—not just the iconic monarch and dainty hummingbird, but the drab hawk moth and homely bats that are just as essential. 

Drawing from the latest research, Helmer breaks down the science on environmental threats in plain-language and explores the most promising conservation initiatives. Notable efforts include farmers reducing pesticides, cities creating butterfly highways, gardeners planting native flowers, and citizen scientists monitoring migration. Along with inspiring stories of revival and lessons from failed projects, Helmer offers needed scientific context, including why climate change helps invasive species thrive and how almond milk production can increase bee exposure to pesticides.

Protecting Pollinators ends with twenty-nine actionable way for readers to get involved with pollinator protection, including choosing plants with a variety of colors, shapes, and scents, and leaving "mulch-free" zones in your yard.

Olivia Carill, co-author of The Bees in Your Backyard, calls the book "an engaging read, packed with information, and…recommend[s] it to any who are interested in the future of our pollinators."

Jodi Helmer writes about food and farming while tending gardens and keeping bees on a small homestead in North Carolina. She is the author of six books, including Farm Fresh Georgia and Growing Your Own Tea Garden.

Founded in 1984, Island Press works to stimulate, shape, and communicate the information that is essential for solving environmental problems. Today, with more than 1,000 titles in print and some 30 new releases each year, it is the nation's leading publisher of books on environmental issues. For more information, visit www.islandpress.org or @IslandPress.

Purchase Protecting Pollinators now at major retailers. Contact Jaime Jennings for media copies [email protected], 202-232-7933 x44, @jaimejennings76.

SOURCE Island Press

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