Used correctly, rights-of-way for electric utility companies can provide the perfect environment for bettering their operations while simultaneously revitalizing a local pollinator population. This well researched article, which includes research that looks at some of the problems with traditional utilities management and how this could be blocking these corridors from becoming vital habitats for endangered species.
Utility Corridors Benefit Pollinators
Historically, electric rights-of-way have been an enigma: the area beneath and around high-voltage power lines that link energy consumers with the power plants generating electricity; a region landowners couldn’t use because anything growing there interfered with reliable transmission of electric current or obstructualishing access overhead for workers to maintain or repair the lines. A couple of recent scientific papers published in the journals Science and Systematic Biology, however, offer a totally radical interpretation by researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The paper, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE, looked at 18 rights-of-way maintained by Duke Energy and found that high-intensity management clearings which were nearly devoid of woody vegetation supported a booming population of flowering plants and their pollinator insects. Therefore, the maintenance activities that utility companies are already using can in fact replicate the natural disturbances which historically produced optimal habitat for many of native insect pollinators across Florida.
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Bringing The Lost Habitats Back
In a former Florida, the landscape was fully comprised of a mosaic of habitat types, vacillating between fields to forests and natural fires rhythmically burning the understory allowing wildflowers cover. But humanity has disrupted this cycle — wildfires are quickly suppressed and controlled burns are often not feasible because of homes and businesses.
Consequently, early successional habitats – the kind that many of Florida’s insect pollinators need – are even more limited. It turns out, however, that utility corridors present themselves as our closest equivalent to these lost ecosystems in the process.
“Early successional habitats are becoming increasingly rare,” said Ivone de Bem Oliveira, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum and co-author of the article. ‘Well, the electric transmission lines replicate that environment.
Systematically mowing, applying selective herbicides and pruning trees allows utility crews to both maintain a safe, accessible corridor for energy transmission and create ideal conditions for many species of pollinating insects.
Conclusion
The results of the research in this article show that utility corridors can be valuable habitats for threatened pollinators. Electric power companies that alter their management practices to support early successional habitats not only can support the continued function of their energy transmission but also are helping to conserve these vital species. This relationship between an industry usually at odds with nature and the natural world itself could be a game-changer for habitat conservation efforts across North America as awareness of pollinator habitats goes more mainstream.
