Bayer CropScience pledged $100,000 to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to be used for the development of roadside pollinator plantings this spring.
The project will provide approximately 46 new acres of bee-attractant vegetation alongside North Carolina’s roads and highways, such as wildflower beds that promote honeybee population development and support crop pollination.
“This investment is a down payment on the sustainable health of pollinators in North Carolina and a model for how public-private partnerships, like that between Bayer and NCDOT, can benefit the environment and state,” says Jim Blome, Bayer CropScience LP president and CEO.
As part of the project, NCDOT will plant hybrid sunflower and hybrid canola seed along the roadsides in each of the state’s 14 transportation divisions. Varieties will be chosen that allow for control of undesirable weeds and obtain maximum bloom for pollinators. Research scientists from Bayer CropScience will monitor the North Carolina roadside plantings to collect pollen and determine the diversity of pollinator species that forage in those locations.
