Help save bees and butterflies on the brink this Giving Tuesday

You can help Mother Nature in a battle for survival. Pollinators, which provide one out of every three bites of our food, are struggling. Five butterfly species in the United States have gone extinct since 1950, and dozens more are on the verge of extinction.

On Giving Tuesday, you can help Mother Nature in a battle for survival. Pollinators, which provide one out of every three bites of our food, are struggling. Five butterfly species in the United States have gone extinct since 1950, and dozens more are on the verge of extinction according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. ”There are 30% fewer butterflies flying around in your yard, on the farm, in natural areas than there were 20 years ago,” says Scott Black, Xerces Society’s executive director. The monarch butterfly is in a steep decline having lost about 90% of its population in North America since the 1990s. Bees aren’t faring any better. More than a quarter of North American bumblebees are at risk of extinction with both bees and butterflies declining by a shocking 1 or 2% a year, according to a report in the National Academy of Sciences. “Will we have the crops that we need to sustain us?” asks Black, “It’s a very serious issue.” Climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use are mostly to blame, say scientists. “It’s kind of this trifecta of threats that are really pushing pollinator populations down,” warns Black. But all is not lost. “Anybody can help no matter how large or small their landscape- whether you live in a tiny yard or you’re a farmer or you manage a parks department,” says Black. “You can make real substantial changes for pollinators.”