text: America’s bee population has been on the decline for years, and that could be bad for our global food supply. But one town in Iowa is trying to help change that. Cedar Rapids is going to seed close to 200 acres with a special pollinator plant mix made of native wildflowers and prairie grasses for them and their plan is to eventually create 1,000 acres of “bee paradise.”
  The 1,000 Acre Pollinator project came from a partnership with the Monarch Research Project, who works to restore butterfly populations. Cedar Rapids Park Superintendent Daniel Gibbins came up with the idea to convert the land into pollinator habitat over five years.
  "With the agricultural boom around 100 years ago, about 99.9% of all the native habitat of Iowa has been lost," says Gibbins. "When you convert it back to what was originally native Iowa, you're going to help a lot more than just native pollinators. You're helping birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals—everything that's native here relies on native vegetation."
  Source: Sunny Skyz