HomeMy WebLinkAboutNoMowMayDataNo Mow May 2021- Invitation to Participate
2020 has been a year full of stress, anxiety and tension, for this reason we are happy to put
forward some excellent news regarding the protection of our native bee pollinators. During the
month of May 2020, the city of Appleton approved the first No Mow May.
The goal of No Mow May is to provide early season forage for emerging native pollinators by
reducing own mowing intensity during a month where foraging resources are limited. Four
hundred and thirty-five Appleton homes registered to participate, and the initiative was widely
appreciated by our community.
Fig. 1 shows the 435 homes that participated in No Mow May 2020. The colored points are sites
where we sampled for native bee biodiversity.
The results of our first attempt at No-Mow-May are promising and speak for themselves. The
reduced mowing intensity resulted in ~35% more floral resources (abundance and diversity)
available to native pollinators by the end of the month (Fig.2). This translated to a five-fold
increase in wild bee abundances and three-fold increase in wild bee diversity (Fig. 3).