Biodiversity Conservation Grant: Enhancing Pollinator Habitat is sponsored by National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) with support from Toyota Motor North America. This grant supports shovel-ready pollinator habitat enhancement projects on America's public lands. Funds are also used for community outreach and engagement activities to educate the public and empower them to create and protect local pollinator habitats.

Biodiversity Conservation Grant: Enhancing Pollinator Habitat | The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) Biodiversity Conservation: Enhancing Pollinator Habitat With support from Toyota Motor North America, the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) is pleased to announce the awardees for the Biodiversity Conservation Grant: Enhancing Pollinator Habitats on America's Public Lands.

Four rounds of grant funding, totaling $800,000 has gone towards shovel-ready pollinator habitat enhancement projects on America’s public lands. According to the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership , between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants require pollinators to grow and reproduce—over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1,200 crops.

They also contribute to healthy ecosystems that provide clean air, stable soil, protection from severe weather, and habitat for other wildlife. Habitat enhancement projects funded by this grant will directly support the creation, restoration, remediation, improvement, and protection of habitats for important pollinator species such as butterflies, bees, bats, and more.

Funds will also be used to incorporate community outreach and engagement activities designed to educate the public and empower them to create and protect local pollinator habitats. “Toyota is thrilled to partner with NEEF to enhance pollinator habitat,” said Becky Martin, manager of Environmental Sustainability at Toyota. "As part of our biodiversity strategy, we are committed to protecting pollinator species.

These projects will help us meet our goal to enhance 26,000 acres of pollinator habitat in North America by 2025.

” In 2025, the following organizations received funding for pollinator projects that will be completed by the summer of 2026: Concannon and Finney Wildlife Areas Integrated Pollinator Habitat Project – Monarch Joint Venture, Garden City, Kansas This pollinator habitat project in the Southern Plains will restore and enhance 1,126 acres across two sites, Concannon and Finney Wildlife Areas in Kansas.

The project will support monarch butterflies, regal fritillaries, Southern Plains bumblebees, and other at-risk pollinators. Led by Monarch Joint Venture with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and Ducks Unlimited, the initiative capitalizes on a strategic opportunity created by a 2024 wildfire at Concannon Wildlife Area that cleared invasive trees.

The project at Concannon and Finney Wildlife Areas will establish native spring-flowering shrub thickets with diverse native pollinator plants and implement rotational grazing through new fencing infrastructure. Large herd animals will provide the disturbance that native grasses need to outcompete invasive species. The project will also monitor and remove invasive woody species throughout both sites.

Community engagement forms a cornerstone of the effort, with volunteers participating in hands-on planting of native milkweed and wildflower plugs in field buffer strips.

Educational components include monarch tagging events, guided prairie tours, and habitat field days designed to connect local landowners, students, and community members with conservation work while fostering long-term stewardship of these critical migratory corridor landscapes.

Pollinator Habitat Restoration & Post-Fire Recovery in Topanga State Park- Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (RCDSMM), Los Angeles, California The Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (RCDSMM) is leading post-fire restoration efforts in Topanga State Park following the devastating Palisades Fire, one of California's most destructive wildfires.

This critical biodiversity hotspot lost mature oak woodlands and monarch butterfly overwintering habitat, and the disturbances of putting out the fires caused significant ground disturbance that will promote invasive weed growth.

The restoration project will enhance 770 acres of pollinator habitat to support dozens of species including monarch butterflies, carpenter bees and bumblebees, western swallowtail butterflies, Allen's and Anna's hummingbirds, and western bluebirds. The one-year initiative emphasizes invasive species control, native tree planting (particularly coast live oaks), and restoration of burned monarch overwintering sites.

RCDSMM will include the community through bimonthly volunteer events providing hands-on opportunities for local residents to participate in replanting, weed management, and habitat restoration. This collaborative approach combines ecological recovery with community education, creating lasting benefits for both wildlife and people while building ecosystem resilience against future threats from habitat loss and wildfires.

Improving Pollinator Habitat Connectivity in the Lower Chippewa River Landscape- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin This project aims to enhance, create, restore, and protect pollinator habitats across 1,233 acres within the Lower Chippewa River Landscape Properties (LCRP), part of a larger 17,000-acre permanently protected landscape in Wisconsin.

The LCRP is a significant area for local biodiversity, playing host to over 50% of Wisconsin's native plants, featuring oak barrens, savannas, remnant prairies, and floodplain forests along the Red Cedar and Chippewa Rivers.

Restoration efforts focus on combating woody encroachment and invasive species, reintroduction of fire management, and increasing flowering plant abundance and diversity to ensure sequential, overlapping blooms that provide a diverse food source for pollinators throughout the entire year. The project builds connectivity between habitat patches to support species requiring mosaic landscapes.

The restoration efforts will lead to improvements that will benefit over 600 pollinator species, including monarch butterflies, federally listed rusty patched bumblebees, and state-listed dusted skippers and hill prairie shovelhead leafhoppers. The area's diverse plant communities contain critical milkweed species and abundant native nectar sources like puccoon, bergamot, coneflowers, and asters.

Community engagement and educational aspects of the project include educational signage, partner volunteer days, field trips, and pollinator surveys. Multiple organizations will collaborate on this project, including local universities and conservation groups, to multiply the benefits to pollinator species across the whole state.

In 2024, the following organizations received funding for pollinator projects that will be completed in the summer of 2025: Returning the Regal Fritillary Butterfly to New York (Fund for the City of New York, New York, NY) This project aims to enhance the grasslands of Freshkills Park in Staten Island, New York City, over one year, with the goal of reintroducing the regal fritillary butterfly, which has seen its habitat decline significantly and requires focused conservation efforts to ensure its survival.

Freshkills Park is recognized as potentially the only suitable area in New York for regal fritillaries, offering a blend of protected grasslands and accessible public viewing locations. Program staff will modify the existing 1000-acre habitat to support the re-introduction of regal fritillaries by planting preferred host plants like native violets and nectaring plants like eastern milkweed.

The community will be engaged through a new K-12 and college-level curriculum on regal fritillary butterflies coupled with extensive volunteer involvement in planting and invasive species removal. Volunteers will lead planting and invasive species removal efforts, potentially earning coursework credits in biodiversity monitoring.

The project aims to foster stewardship of natural areas and raise awareness about the vital role of pollinators in human society and biodiversity conservation, particularly in a community park that was once the world's largest landfill.

From the River to the Ridges: Improving Pollinator Habitat Along the Salmon River (Salmon Valley Stewardship, Salmon, ID) The goal of this project is to engage the community in critical monarch habitat expansion along 20 miles of the Salmon River corridor.

The project site falls within the Salmon River Breaks Project Area, an 11,000-acre tract that has been treated with prescribed burns, mechanical thinning, and noxious weed removal for the last 13 years.

Salmon Valley Stewardship (SVS) volunteers will make and plant seedballs, which are essential to reseeding the rocky, steep terrain and shallow soils of the river valley, in addition to hand-pulling invasive plants and planting milkweed and other native pollinator-friendly plants along the 20-mile corridor. This work will directly improve 1,625 acres of pollinator habitat—about twice the area of Central Park in New York City.

In addition, the project provides a unique service-learning opportunity with the Salmon High School natural resources class, who will travel to the project sites and spend time with SVS staff learning about plant and pollinator identification and helping with habitat restoration through seedball application.

Funding will also support four college internship positions and reach approximately 150 individuals through education and outreach opportunities.

Kentucky Nature Preserve Pollinator Project (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, Frankfort, KY) This project seeks to improve biodiversity and protect native pollinator species in Kentucky's Bluegrass Region through strategic invasive species management and habitat restoration efforts at Blue Licks State Nature Preserve, Short's Goldenrod State Nature Preserve, and Kentucky River Palisades/Tom Dorman State Nature Preserves.

The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (OKNP) will use prescribed burns, mechanical removal, and chemical treatment to target invasive species across approximately 560 acres, creating or restoring habitat patches with diverse native plants crucial for pollinator food and shelter.

These efforts are complemented by educational and outreach initiatives, including workshops at institutions like the University of Kentucky, aimed at engaging hundreds of participants in native flora and fauna education, invasive species eradication, and pollinator propagation.

Volunteer training sessions at state parks, including four hands-on workshops, will equip approximately 100 volunteers and Preserve staff with essential skills for habitat restoration and invasive species management. These activities aim to empower community members, park staff, and conservation professionals to sustainably manage pollinator habitats, contributing to the long-term conservation of biodiversity in the region.

In 2023, the following organizations received funding for pollinator projects will be completed in the summer of 2024: Urban Prairies Project (Butterfly Pavilion, Westminster, Colorado) The Urban Prairies Project (UPP) is a collaborative partnership that engages local communities to improve the quality, quantity, and connectivity of pollinator habitat on public open spaces.

During the 2023-2024 project season, UPP will engage over 150 volunteers to plant native species including milkweed, reseed restoration areas, remove noxious weeds, and collect native plant seed for propagation on public lands in the Denver metro area, impacting over 150 different pollinator species across more than 3,000 acres.

UPP will offer several public outreach events—including three seasonal BioBlitz events—that will raise awareness about pollinators, help families connect with nature, and be inspired to become environmental stewards. UPP will also be installing three demonstration gardens that will become learning spaces where guests can discover how to increase habitat at home and observe pollinators in action.

Enhancing Pollinator Habitats in Louisville’s Urban Core (Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Louisville, Kentucky) Olmsted Parks Conservancy works to combat invasive species, human impact, encroachment, and other challenges that jeopardize vital habitats within the city, with a particular focus on historically disinvested neighborhoods.

Funding from the 2023 Biodiversity Conservation Grant will enhance and preserve more than 1,000 habitat acres across the Louisville parks system, including Chickasaw Park, where volunteers will install a “Butterfly and Bee” pollinator meadow to honor the park’s most famous user: Muhammad Ali, who trained there in his youth.

A network of specially trained park stewards, as well as hundreds of local students, corporate volunteers, and park neighbors, will host several community engagement activities, including guided hikes, educational tours, two BioBlitz events, and community science data collection with Kentucky State University and the University of Louisville.

Parkway Pollinator Corridor Project (San Joaquin River Parkway & Conservation Trust, Inc., Fresno, California) The San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust, Inc., protects and expands riparian habitats to create a wildlife corridor in California’s Central Valley.

This project will augment funds for the River Parkway Trust’s larger-scale habitat enhancement projects to support understory plantings and seeding at closely connected San Joaquin River Parkway properties, where woody shrubs can provide protection and nectar sources for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

The River Parkway Trust will hold at least three Parkway Pollinator Corridor Project volunteer workdays at each of the three largest and publicly accessible properties with habitat enhancement projects: Jensen River Ranch, Fresno River West, and Sycamore Island. The seeding and planting volunteer events will be held monthly in the fall and early winter of 2023 to align with the region’s optimal seeding and planting timeline.

Each volunteer will receive a seed ball party favor to encourage the community to act independently to support pollinators in the Central Valley.

In 2022, two organizations received $100,000 each to complete their pollinator habitat enhancement projects: Pollinator Habitat Improvement on Catalina Island in California (Catalina Island Conservancy, Avalon, California) The Catalina Island Conservancy maintains a healthy balance between protecting Catalina's unique environment and serving the needs of a diverse public—approximately 700,000 annual visitors from Los Angeles and greater Southern California, as well as the 4,000 permanent residents of the city of Avalon.

This grant project will allow for critically needed management of invasive plant species so that native pollinator species such as the Avalon Hairstreak butterfly, Catalina orange streak butterfly, cuckoo bee, and Allen’s hummingbird can not only survive, but thrive.

In addition, the Conservancy will oversee several programs aimed at educating and engaging both children and adults about the island’s native pollinators and the work required to maintain their habitat.

Increasing Pollinator Habitat in the Urban Landscape Through Community Engagement (Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio) The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is home to an award-winning horticulture department which, in addition to maintaining the Zoo’s expansive botanical garden, also serves neighboring communities by revitalizing parks and playgrounds with landscaping and pollinator gardens.

Their Plant for Pollinators program shares this expertise with community members while encouraging them to create their own pollinator habitats, with over 2,400 gardens registered since 2019. Through this grant project, the Cincinnati Zoo will spearhead the installation of a sustainable pollinator garden in the Avondale community—in which the Zoo is located—along with active input from residents throughout the process.

This garden will be the first in a series of six “pocket parks” that will create a habitat for pollinators as well as provide healthy environments for the local community, where approximately 44% of the population live on or below the poverty level. The Cincinnati Zoo hopes to use this project as a model for other zoos and environmental organizations seeking to promote similar coexistence-themed conservation strategies in urban spaces.

Grantee Promotional Toolkit This press kit is a resource to be used by NEEF Grantees to assist in the promotion and storytelling of grant... Read about the impact this grant made across the country. The 2024 Biodiversity Conservation Grant Empowers Communities to Support Their Native Pollinators NEEF is pleased to announce the awardees for the 2024 Biodiversity Conservation Grant: Enhancing Pollinator...

How Olmsted Parks Conservancy Protects Biodiversity by Tackling Invasive Species With support from NEEF and Toyota, Louisville’s Olmsted Parks Conservancy is bringing biodiversity back to... NEEF Conservation Grant Supports Biodiversity in the California Floristic Province NEEF and Toyota funded $220,000 for biodiversity conservation in California's Floristic Province. Four...