It’s common to see trees planted in rows around homesteads in the Great Plains to cut the sweeping gales. However, these hedgerows can do more than just block wind. They can create pollinator habitat, increase carbon capture, and bolster crop production.
Doug Crabtree and Anna Jones-Crabtree noticed as much on their property at Vilicus Farms, a 12,500-acre organic dryland crop farm located in Northern Hill County, Montana. Their legumes and grasses did better in areas next to 50-year-old caragana shrubs used as field borders. They thought these woody plants reduced soil evaporation from wind and increased snow drifts in the winter to trap moisture for the coming year. So when Xerces asked if they would like to plant more hedgerows as part of the Conservation Innovation Grant and to add more permanent habitat to their Bee Better Certified plan, they were ready!
With a Conservation Innovation Grant from the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Xerces teamed up with Vilicus Farms, Mad Agriculture, and the Montana Conservation Corps in fall 2023 to plant an experimental double hedgerow designed to provide these multiple benefits.
Designing a better natural windbreak
Designing new windbreaks for moisture retention, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration took an experimental direction. Traditional windbreaks are 200 feet wide and use plant species that either don’t flower, like evergreens, or only flower in the spring. To make the pollinator hedgerow fit into the Vilicus Farms layout, we designed strips that were 15 feet wide and would have two parallel hedges 0.4 miles long. To boost the crops, one row would have the naturalized species Siberian pea-shrub because Doug and Anna knew it would grow well and would be 10 feet tall after a few years. The other row would focus on blooming plants for pollinators with a mix of 11 native and one naturalized shrub and small tree species. We chose a large number of species because there was little to no information on what species would do well in a blooming hedgerow for the northern plains of Montana. The species chosen bloom from spring to fall, have the potential to grow 3 feet to 10 feet tall, and are likely to naturally occur in the region of the farm. With this double hedgerow plan, we covered all of our bases!
Planting the windbreak used special techniques and a lot of hard work. Vilicus and Xerces partnered with Mad Agriculture, the Montana Conservation Corps, and some wonderful volunteers to plant 1,158 potted trees and shrubs in over a week. To help water the young plants, Anna and Doug suggested catching snow with a line of wooden fence that would function like a shorter future version of the grown hedgerow. (Vilicus also uses this snow fence technique to increase water for cattle ponds.) For organic weed control, the strip was tilled and burlap was tucked around each plant in long strips parallel to the hedges.
An ongoing partnership for pollinator habitat
To understand the changes that will occur with this planting, Xerces took baseline measurements of pollinators, soil carbon, water infiltration rates into the soil, and some other metrics for the Conservation Innovation Grant, which we will check again in the final year of the project. We visit every year in the spring and summer to check the plants and monitor the pollinators. This summer, we saw that most of the species we planted survived and were growing new leaves. The plants with larger root systems had more growth than those from smaller pots. There were few blooms so far, but there is great potential as these babies will keep growing and one day make many pollinators happy!
Working with Vilicus Farms over the past several years has been a wonderful partnership. You can discover more about Xerces and Vilicus’ collaboration in our interactive story & map of conservation projects. We have learned a lot together about habitat restoration in the northern Great Plains, and both Xerces and Vilicus are committed to sharing those lessons with our other farm partners. Vilicus Farms has created a non-profit, Vilicus Institute, to share case studies and presentations about their work, and Xerces continues to support farms through Bee Better Certification and the Pollinator Conservation Resource Center.
Learn more about pollinator-friendly farming practices
- Explore Xerces’ resources for supporting pollinators on farmland
- Get help and funding through your local NRCS service center
- Learn more about the Bee Better Certified program
Angela works with agricultural producers in the inland Pacific Northwest to create pollinator friendly habitat. She strives to bring the joy of invertebrates to all people through conversation and habitat creation. Angie has been collaborating with farmers since 2016 to help with resource needs in perennial and annual crops. She holds a MS in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona. Outside of work Angie spends time cooking, foraging, and volunteering.
