Pollinator Power: Their Amazing Story

Pollinators are important because they drive a lot of the ecosystem function that we see in the world around us. Every flowering plant on this prairie that we're standing in the middle of, the Pawnee Prairie, requires pollinators in order for it to continue to exist. If pollinators were to drop off the face of this prairie, all the flowers would cease to exist in a matter of 20, 30 years. Basically, without pollinators, we'd be reduced to grass. The entire world would look like a wand. Bees do most of the work of pollination, but butterflies are far more conspicuous. Everybody's more likely to see a monarch flying through your yard than a sweat bee. So knowing that butterflies are still existing tells us that we're managing the prairie in ways that support the thousands of other invertebrates that live out here. We're discovering species new to science from prairies on a yearly basis. We're discovering species new to the state on a yearly basis. We don't even know what we have to lose. And so butterflies are a great way of helping ensure that we preserve things that we don't even know we have. They really have incredible stories. Bees are one of our best-known groups of insects, but there's 25,000 species of insects in the state of Missouri. And we're just now beginning to learn what's here, much less how we depend on it, how we need them, what they do for us, and if they're doing well or if they're doing poorly. It's an incredible world out there. You can find species new to science in your own backyard, I guarantee it. It's an amazing thing to be interested in because you can be a modern-day explorer. You don't have to go to Antarctica or the deep ocean to discover something that nobody's ever seen before. You can do it in your own backyard. You can do it in a nearby conservation area, state park, or your own farm. There's a lot of amazing things out there. And all it takes is somebody looking.