San Saba Bird and Nature Club welcomes Johana Huff, on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 2 PM. Ms. Huff will tell about Mason Bees and how providing habitat for these native pollinators can help with agricultural tax valuation. Come join us at the San Saba Civic Center, 1190 S. Thomas Drive. The public is invited.

Protecting native insect pollinators on private property now comes with new benefits for landowners.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Nongame and Rare Species Program developed new guidelines for landowners to develop wildlife management plans for their properties. If a landowner’s property is currently evaluated under an Agricultural Tax Valuation, they may qualify for an Agricultural Tax Appraisal based on Wildlife Management Use if they follow the new guidelines to protect and support native pollinators.

Because 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. The guidelines outline a suite of different practices that benefit these species, from prescribed burning, native plant re-seeding and installation of native pollinator plots to creating nest sites. The various practices in the guidelines could be applied to small backyards and large ranches alike.

Although the non-native European honeybee tends to garner the most public attention, there are actually several hundred bee species that are native to Texas. These include bumble bees, carpenter bees, mason bees, leafcutter bees, long-horned bees and many others. These native bee species were here long before the honeybee and are critical to the state’s diverse native plant communities and agricultural production. The above is excerpted from an article by thehillcountryalliance.org. To read the complete article go to Hill Country Alliance.

For more information visit www.sansababirdandnatureclub.org or call 325-372-7615