If you read You Can Help the Honeybees, the following email from Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservationist Wilma Bird will fill in some of the details about the Bee Grant application process. With Bird's email came four documents, but they don't explain much of what's needed or how to handle the Honey Bee initiative. The easiest way to figure out how to navigate this process is to call Wilma Bird at 734-761-8789, Ext. 3.
Links to view or download the four documents are below the email.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bird, Wilma - NRCS - Ann Arbor, MI, MI <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
To: Writing4All <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank" data-cke-saved-' + path + '\'' + prefix + ':' + addy17708 + '\'>'+addy_text17708+'<\/a>'; //--> >
Sent: Thu, Jun 4, 2015 5:24 pm
Subject: Pollinator Habitat -Conservation Planning
From: Bird, Wilma - NRCS - Ann Arbor, MI, MI <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
To: Writing4All <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank" data-cke-saved-' + path + '\'' + prefix + ':' + addy17708 + '\'>'+addy_text17708+'<\/a>'; //--> >
Sent: Thu, Jun 4, 2015 5:24 pm
Subject: Pollinator Habitat -Conservation Planning
Cecilia,
Attached is some information on the Western Great Lakes and Northern Great Plains Honey Bee Effort. These information sheets, although directed towards honey bees, would also benefit all pollinator species. To be eligible, applicants would need to be within one mile of an apiary (5 hives or more) or have one themselves, and be able to document said apiary.
Please be aware that we require anyone applying with NRCS will need to establish farm records with Farm Service Agency, 734-761-8789 x2. They are located in the same building, 7203 Jackson Rd., Ann Arbor, 48103.
The Conservation Planning sign up we have going on right now has a deadline of June 12th, 2015. After June 12th we will be contacting individuals on our list to schedule a site visit to proceed with the planning process. Individuals who complete the planning process with us and ultimately want to fill out an application, will go into our ranking system as a high priority for EQIP 2016, though financial assistance cannot be guaranteed.
I have added your name to the sign up list to have a Conservation Plan developed towards increasing/improving pollinator habitat, but if anyone else is interested please have them give us a call!
Wilma Bird
Soil Conservationist
USDA NRCS
7203 Jackson Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ext. 3
Attached Documents:
USDA: What Is Conservation Planning? (pdf)
Mi-USDA-NRCS: Honey Bee FactSheet (pdf)
Mi-USDA-NRCS: Five Steps to NRCS Assistance FactSheet (1.1MB pdf)
Mi-DNR: Wildlife Habitat Grant Program Handbook 2015 Round 2 (5MB Word Document)
"Pollinators are struggling," White House Science Advisor John Holdren said in a White House blog post. "A new federal survey found that beekeepers lost more than 42 percent of their colonies last year. More of the insects died in summer than winter for the first time since the US Department of Agriculture launched its annual honeybee survey. The number of monarch butterflies that spend the winter in Mexico's forests is down by 90 percent or more over the past two decades. The goals of the new strategy are to reduce overwinter honeybee death to 15% and to increase the Monarch population to 225 million."