I was happy to read about the pollinator garden planted by Florence residents Brian Adams and Morey Phippen (“A blooming movement: Pollinator gardens proliferate as homeowners, others look to create ecosystems on their properties”, June 24). I hope more folks feel inspired to follow their good example.
In addition to a wide variety of native plants, there’s another thing pollinators need: darkness at night. Most pollination is done by nocturnal moths, not diurnal bees. And those nocturnal insects are devastated by light pollution. A recent study found that in the presence of artificial light at night, visits to flowers by pollinating insects dropped by 62% and even in daylight there were significantly fewer visits.
To protect the pollinators on which our food supply depends, residents and businesses can turn off all unnecessary outdoor lights at night and, for any lights that must be used, choose lights that have warm colors, are no brighter than needed, and are fully shielded so the light goes down only. Cities and towns can do the same: carefully select and install public lighting on streets and parking lots and in parks with the health of pollinators and other wildlife in mind. For more information online, see https://darksky.org/news/pollinators-switch-street-lights-off-at-midnight-to-help-moths-and-nocturnal-wildlife/ and https://northamptoncitylights.org.
James Lowenthal
Northampton