Farming and Ranching Useful Resources

• Protecting Pollinators Video by the NRCS
  
• Protecting Pollinators: Why and How Pesticide Applicators Can Help Them Brochure- Free Download
• Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
  • Coevolution Institute Statement for the March 29th House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing
  • Executive Summary: CoE comments
  • What you can do about CCD
• Reducing Risk to Pollinators from Pesticides
  
• Pollinator Friendly Practices
• Trees, Pollinators, and Responsible Pesticide Use for Minnesota's Woodlands
• Link to U.S. Forest Service Celebrating Wildflowers website
• Link to Montana Pollinator Friendly Plantings
• Link to Pollinator.com: a source for more pollinator info
• Agroforestry Notes: Thank you to the USDA National Agroforestry Center and the National Resources Conservation Service, and to the authors, Mace Vaughan and Scott Hoffman Black of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
  • Agroforestry: Sustaining Native Bee Habitat For Crop Pollination
  • Improving Forage For Native Bee Crop Pollinators
  • Enhancing Nest Sites For Native Bee Crop Pollinators
• Farming for Bees: Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
• Science-in-Farming
• Seeds For Bee Habitat Around The Farm
• ForFarmers.com is a marketplace for buying and selling various breeds of bee like bee wax, bee wax candles, honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly the site is including also livestock equipment, equine jobs and news headlines from around the world.
  Link to ForFarmers.com
  
• Marketplace to aid those in the agricultural field in buying and selling tractors, land, seeds, farming related merchandise, as well as livestock, farming related jobs, animal products, agrochemicals and a wide range of services. http://www.agriseek.com/

Awards

National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) - NAPPC Farmer Rancher Pollinator Conservation Award
NAPPC Farmer-Rancher Pollinator Conservation Award, initiated in 2006, recognizes an individual or family in the farm and ranch community in the U.S. who has contributed significantly to pollinator species protection and conservation on working and wild lands. NAPPC and NACD encourage further pollinator conservation stewardship through their recognition of the award winners. The multi-colored, cut-glass award features a hummingbird, bees and a butterfly and was designed by artist James Randolph, whose previous work includes the Air and Space Museum’s Challenger Tribute.
The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) represents America’s 3,000 conservation districts, which are local units of government established under state law to carry out natural resource management programs at the local level. Districts work with millions of cooperating landowners and operators to help them manage and protect land and water resources on all private lands and many public lands in the United States. More information about NACD is available at http://www.nacdnet.org/.

James Anthony “Tony” Thompson, Willow Lake Farm

Tony Thompson is a tireless and passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture, who is continuously seeking innovative methods to protect and restore native biodiversity on his farm while also earning a living from farming at the lowestcost to the land. The Thompson farm isa model for how productive agriculture can operate in an environmentally sustainable - pollinator friendly - fashion. His openness to the natural resource conservation community provides an opportunity for positive dialogue between producers and conservationists. His leadership, example, compassion for farmer neighbors and friends, and outreach to thebroader agricultural community lend credibility to conservation on private working lands.
Tony is a fifth generation farmer, producing primarily corn and soybeans on fertile land in southwestern Minnesota that has been owned by his family since 1876. The family farm is composed of 2000 acres of cropland and nearly 1400 acres of remnant prairie and wetlands.Wetlands and waterways are buffered with up to 600-ft wide bands of diverse, native grasses and forbs. Tony farms or otherwise manages in partnership an additional 1700 acres of cropland. The Thompson farm is situated in the Northern Tallgrass Prairie Region, where <1% of native habitats remain and restoration indigenous plant and animal communities is a regionaland national priority http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/northerntallgrass/.
To learn more about Tony Thompson, his Willow Lake Farm and see more images, click here 2009 Farmer Rancher Winner Tony Thompson