Prairie Strips Benefit Pollinators and Farmers

Thursday, July 23
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m Central Standard Time

 Free Webinar

Thanks in part to Iowa State University’s ten years of research, the USDA recently added the prairie strips practice to the Conservation Reserve Program. Three of Iowa State’s STRIPS (Science Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips) team members will share how this practice can improve the abundance, diversity and productivity of pollinators while providing other valuable benefits to the farmer and farmland owner.

In addition to explaining new NRCS funding procedures for the practice, the team will also tell of their practical experiences working with farmers to install and maintain ribbons of perennial prairie vegetation onto farm landscapes. Two-hundred eighty-nine farmers in the U.S. have already installed 1,575 acres of prairie strips.

This webinar is part of our series of programming on farming and insect life. And it is part of a larger set of educational offerings being provided with special attention to farmland owners, both public and private. We believe that farmland ownership bring stewardship responsibility and also the opportunity to be part of the movement to create a form of agriculture that is better for the land, the health of families, communities, and farmers.

QUESTIONS? Please contact:

Nathan Aaberg (Liberty Prairie Foundation) – nathan@libertyprairie.org or 847-507-5989

SPEAKERS

Matt O’Neal, PhD.

Dr. O’Neal is Professor of Entomology at Iowa State University and the STRIPS Pollinator Research Lead. He has a research and teaching appointment at Iowa State University where he focuses on the ecology of insects, exploring way to conserve beneficial insects and manage pests that attack corn and soybeans.

Omar de Kok-Mercado

Omar is the STRIPS Project Coordinator and STRIPS Communications Lead at Iowa State University. His role is to coordinate transdisciplinary research and extension activities on prairie strips and to measure their impacts on farmland, farm livelihoods, soil, water, and wildlife conservation. Omar’s expertise is in agronomy, soil microbiology, and science communication. 

Tim Youngquist

Tim is the STRIPS Farmer Liaison as well as Agricultural Specialist at Iowa State University. His role as an Agriculture Specialist is to help farmers throughout the Midwest design and implement in-field buffer strips using native perennial prairie species