Bethpage State Park Ecology

Happy National Pollinator Week! Around this time in June, our mission is to honor and spread awareness about the numerous ecosystem services that pollinators provide to our park and parkgoers. To clarify, pollinators refer to any  organisms that transfer pollen as a result of feeding on flowers. While the commonly known pollinators are bees and butterflies, the job is also completed by a variety of beetles, moths, flies, birds and even bats ! Regardless of the organism, the movement of pollen from one flower to the next, promotes a new generation of plants.  This means increased floral beauty in our green spaces, cleaner air, additional forage/refuge for other fauna... the list goes on and on, especially when you consider what pollinators do for our diets and our economy (I bet that  your favorite fruit or vegetable needs bees!). However, pollinators need our help now; their populations have been dwindling in part because their nectar sources have been removed by urbanization an