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Pollinator habitat management

Butterfly on flowers at Point Iroquois light on Lake Superior.

Pollinator habitat management

Protecting and enhancing pollinator habitats

Pollinator populations are in decline worldwide, most notably in insect pollinators. MDOT has developed a habitat management plan to protect pollinators and their habitats in rights of way in response to pollinator population decline. By reducing negative impacts on pollinator habitat, improving existing habitat and creating new habitat in our roadsides, we can help pollinators by giving them safe travel corridors, food and shelter. By protecting pollinators, we are helping farmers produce crops and feed livestock, assisting beekeepers by providing a source of food for their bees, and improving wildlife habitat throughout Michigan.

Questions? Contact Kelsey Alvarado, Endangered Species Coordinator, at 517-331-2145. 

Pollinator Habitat Management Program

How is MDOT helping pollinators?

  • Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Program

    MDOT’s Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Program uses an approach that reduces costs while supporting environmental health. 

    The program includes:

    • Considering the needs of local communities and highway users
    • Applying ecological knowledge and natural processes
    • Incorporating design, construction and maintenance requirements
    • Conducting ongoing monitoring and evaluation
    • Complying with government statutes and regulations
    • Using cultural, biological, mechanical and chemical control methods to manage roadsides safely, economically and with environmental and visual quality in mind

    Aligned with the FAST Act, MDOT also:

    • Reduces mowing as a mechanical control
    • Establishes pollinator habitat through native plantings as a cultural control
    • Creates long, connected habitat corridors for pollinator movement
    • Avoids insecticide use in rights of way and applies herbicides strategically to manage invasive species and support pollinator health as a chemical control
    • Uses prescribed fire and beneficial insects to address invasive species as a biological control