MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2025. BY XERCES SOCIETY.
Many insect pollinators continue to decline in California, including bees and butterflies. The western monarch butterfly population has declined more than 95% since the 1980s. One step we can take to protect these important animals is to increase the amount of habitat available to them. The Xerces Habitat Kit Program, now open for applications, provides climate-smart native plants to project partners who are willing to provide the time, labor and land to develop pollinator habitats.
Xerces’ California habitat kits have provided over 100,000 plants to partners and pollinators across California. We are excited to continue this work!
WHO QUALIFIES?
The native plant kits are intended to be used to create or enhance monarch and pollinator habitat on working lands, public lands, tribal lands and private/non-working lands recovering from wildfires with landowner or land manager collaboration. This includes farms, ranches, tribal land, post-wildfire recovery areas, urban farms or gardens, city parks, school gardens or other public areas. The kits are not intended to be used in home gardens.
Approximate Kit Regions and pick up locations for California Habitat Kits. Use the interactive map available HERE to determine if you are within a qualifying region. All of the Lodi AVA is within the qualifying area.
(Please note that the Southern California pick up location has changed and is noted below.)
Visit our site HERE to find out if you qualify for this program and to apply.
We encourage stewards of working lands to partner with organizations or entities that can provide additional technical support for their projects, such as Resource Conservation Districts, The Natural Resources Conservation Service or other conservation organizations.
For questions about your project’s suitability or requests for technical guidance on your project, please email us at centralvalleypollinators@xerces.org.
HOW TO FILL OUT THE PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM
We are accepting proposals for 2025 from February 10 through April 4, 2025. The Project Proposal Form collects information about where the kit will be planted, the size of the area and plans for site preparation, management and maintenance, as well as plans for pesticide risk mitigation and outreach opportunities, if applicable. This form is your opportunity to demonstrate that your project is well-designed and carefully thought out. A limited number of habitat kits are available and we receive more requests than we are able to fulfill. Participants are selected based on the project information set out in proposals as well as considerations such as location and habitat implementation and management plans.
Single kits are not designed to be divided into multiple projects, and we are not able to provide partial kits or to customize kits for specific projects. Participants must be able to use the entire kit in one project but it can be divided up among several areas on a farm or ranch. If applying for kits for multiple projects you will need to fill out a separate application for each project.
You will be notified by late May 2025 if you will be receiving a kit. Kits will be available for pick up in October of 2025 for northern California.
HABITAT KITS AVAILABLE
We have several types of habitat kits available and the contents of each kit type varies by region. Some kit types are only available in certain regions because we want to work with local plant and seed producers and use local plant ecotypes in our habitat kits as much as possible. All kits are comprised of native plants that have been identified as having high value to monarchs and other pollinators and are grown without the use of systemic pesticides that may be harmful to pollinators. You may request multiple kits if needed for your project.
Wildflower Grasslands Kits
This kit type contains 600 small herbaceous transplants (mostly ‘plugs’) including milkweed, flowering forbs and some grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 5,400 square feet if planted on 3 ft. spacing. Available for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada Foothills, Central Coast and Coastal Foothill regions.
Riparian Wildflower Kits
This kit type contains 600 small herbaceous transplants (mostly ‘plugs’), including milkweed, flowering forbs, and some grasses/sedges. This kit contains plants that do well in riparian areas and can tolerate some seasonal flooding. Each kit will cover 5,400 square feet if planted on 3 ft. spacing. Available for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada Foothills, Central Coast and Coastal Foothill regions.
Hedgerow Kits
This kit type contains 90 woody and herbaceous transplants including flowering shrubs and forbs, milkweed and native bunch grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 540 linear feet/5,400 square feet if planted on 6 ft. spacing. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Available for all project regions.
Riparian Hedgerow Kits
This kit type contains 90 woody and herbaceous transplants including flowering shrubs and forbs, milkweed and native bunch grasses/sedges. Each kit will cover approximately 540 linear feet/5,400 square feet if planted on 6 ft. spacing. This kit contains plants that do well in riparian areas and can tolerate some seasonal flooding. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Available for all project regions.
Garden Kits
This kit type contains 36 herbaceous transplants including milkweed, flowering forbs and some grasses. Each kit will cover approximately 576 square feet when planted on 4 ft. spacing. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Available for all project regions.
Monarch Overwintering Kits
We are now offering monarch overwintering kits, intended to be used in or near monarch overwintering sites along the coastline (see interactive map), and in other coastal areas outside of the range of milkweed. These kits contain 36 perennials, grasses and shrubs. These kits will not contain milkweed and will focus on species that provide nectar year round, especially in the winter. Each kit will cover approximately 576 square feet when planted on 4 ft. spacing. Container sizes range from tree band to 1 gallon. Available for the Central Coast and Southern California.
HABITAT KIT DISTRIBUTION
If selected for a kit, in October you will be provided with pick up days and locations. There will be a range of dates (usually around 4 days) and times when the kits will be available for pick up. The cost of the kit is covered by Xerces. Recipients are responsible to pick up their kits from the kit distribution site.
Kit pick up locations are as follows:
- Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, and Sierra Foothills kits: USDA NRCS Plant Materials Center, Lockeford CA
- Central Coast and Coastal Foothills kits: Our City Forest, San Jose CA
- Southern California kits: Native West Nursery, San Diego CA or GrowGood Urban Farm, Bell CA (pick up is in December)
You are required to plant the kit within a reasonable amount of time after receiving the kit (1—2 months), and to follow the plan outlined in your proposal. Once the kit is planted, you must contact us to let us know the kit is planted and share some photos. A brief report is due the following June which should include information such as the amount of area planted and the establishment success of the project. You will also be asked to submit a photo of your habitat once per year for up to 5 years. If awarded a kit, you will receive a project partner collaborative agreement that outlines all requirements.
ABOUT THE XERCES SOCIETY
The Xerces Society is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Our name (which is pronounced Zer-sees, or /ˈzɚˌsiz/) comes from the now-extinct Xerces blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces), the first butterfly known to go extinct in North America as a result of human activities. The Xerces blue’s habitat was destroyed by development in the sand dunes of San Francisco, and the species was declared extinct by the 1940s. For nearly 50 years, we have protected endangered species and their habitats, produced ground-breaking publications, trained thousands of farmers and land managers to conserve habitat and raised awareness about the importance and plights of invertebrates in forests, prairies, deserts and oceans. Our key program areas are pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation and reducing pesticide use and impacts.
In 2020, the Lodi Winegrape Commission’s Research, Education, & Communication Committee contributed funding to expand the Xerces hedgerow efforts in the Lodi AVA to even more willing growers, since the demand for kits exceeded the amount that could be supplied via grant funding and the goals of the project align with those of the Commission. For more information on the benefits of planting vineyard hedgerows, click HERE.
If you need assistance filling out the application form, have questions about your project’s suitability or need to request technical guidance on your project, please email us at: centralvalleypollinators@xerces.org.
TO SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE, PLEASE VISIT XERCES.ORG
Featured Image: Western monarch by Stephanie McKnight, Xerces Society.
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