Transmission and pipeline rights-of-way (ROWs) in the U.S. are estimated to occupy approximately 21 million acres, roughly equivalent to the average harvested corn acres in Missouri and Illinois combined. Additionally, there are nearly 4 million miles of roadside ROW and 233 thousand miles of railroad ROW in the U.S. These ROWs dissect agricultural land, urban areas, and natural areas like forests and grasslands. Managed ROWs represent an opportunity to provide habitats for numerous species of plants and animals, including pollinators that provide critical ecosystem services for farms, natural areas, and private homeowners. Strategic creation of pollinator habitat in ROW with respect to cross-sector land management offers large potential benefits to agricultural production, conservation, education, and research. In this work, we hypothesize that the success of managed ROWs to provide quality pollinator habitat is based on a combination of integrated vegetation management (IVM) practices within ROWs, physical habitat characteristics, surrounding land use composition specific to geography/ecoregion characteristics, and pollinators of interest. We evaluate an experimental design aimed at identifying the effects of different IVM practices in ROWs on pollinators. We rely on variabilities in IVM practices and physical characteristics of ROWs reported in literature and other sources to statistically determine which design elements are important to discern potential effects on pollinator habitat quality.  The findings will promote informed evaluation of conservation management strategies. Appropriate statistical and field study designs aimed to characterize pollinator success based on IVM practices would allow ROW managers to gain quantitative information to better understand where and when to establish IVMs across spatially explicit, complex and diverse landscapes. Additionally, agricultural land managers may benefit from implementation of certain IVM practices in ROWs that will positively impact crop production while promoting conservation of pollinators and other species.<br/>

Evaluation of applied, cross-sector vegetative best management practices in rights-of-way on pollinators

256th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.