The People's Garden at USDA Headquarters in Washington, DC. was the location of the 5th Annual Pollinator Celebration. Various activities and exhibits on bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles highlighted the work of USDA agencies and federal partners.
One of the exhibits "Celebrating 25 Years of the Conservation Reserve Program", featured FSA's Zip the Bee who was there to help spread the word about the benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program and its new CP42 practice.
Zip is well known on the FSA Kids page as the tour guide in the popular AgVenture Game which can be played online. Zip proved to be very popular with the visitors and many stopped by to have a photo taken, and receive valuable information about the benefits of the CRP program.
- CRP is a popular, voluntary program that has a long history of providing soil, water, and wildlife benefits on fragile and marginal cropland.
- CRP has a variety of options to help farmers plant diverse wildflower habitats pollinators need.
- Ongoing studies are documenting how landscapes with CRP help support healthy populations of economically important honeybees.
- FSA has a new CRP practice called CP42, designed to create even better pollinator habitat.
FSA employees Susan Proper and Mary Helen Askins took turns playing the part of Zip, while Jim Michaels, Bridgette Collins and Cynthia Berringer provided information about the CRP program.
Here in this video Zip waves at visitors who passed by the exhibit.
