Texas Parks and Wildlife Department invites the public to celebrate the importance of birds, bees, butterflies and bats to the ecosystem and economy during National Pollinator Week, June 20-26.

Roughly one-third of all the food we eat is because of pollination that happened in a farmer’s field. Annually, bee-pollinated crops are estimated to add more than $15 billion to the U.S. economy. In North America, most plant pollination is carried out by bees and the act of pollination itself is a service worth an estimated $3 billion annually.

Aiming to support native pollinators, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Nongame and Rare Species Program have developed new guidelines for landowners to develop wildlife management plans for their properties, which could qualify them for a wildlife tax valuation.

When a landowner’s property is evaluated under an Agricultural Tax Valuation, they can qualify for an Agricultural Tax Appraisal based on Wildlife Management Use if they follow the new guidelines to protect and support native pollinators.

Since more than 95 percent of Texas lands are privately owned, effective native insect pollinator conservation requires private landowner involvement. Landowners can play a significant role in conserving and maintaining pollinator populations by applying management practices that benefit these species, which support the healthy growth of several agricultural crops for free.

The new guidelines are published in Management Recommendations for Native Insect Pollinators in Texas, which can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/TXNativePollinators.