How Connected Garden Corridors Are Creating Pollinator Superhighways to Save Long Island’s Struggling Bee Population in 2025

As Long Island faces unprecedented bee population declines, innovative landscaping solutions are emerging as crucial lifelines for our struggling pollinators. Recent reports indicate that beekeepers lost an average of 62% of their colonies between June 2024 and February 2025, a catastrophic loss of approximately 1.1 million colonies nationwide. In response to this crisis, forward-thinking homeowners and landscaping professionals are creating connected garden corridors that function as “pollinator superhighways,” providing essential habitat and food sources for bees across Long Island’s suburban landscape.

The Science Behind Pollinator Superhighways

Recent research from North Carolina State University demonstrates that buildings had the lowest estimated dye transfer, roads and gardens were intermediate, and lawns and forest fragments had the highest estimated dye transfer when measuring pollinator movement across urban landscapes. This groundbreaking study reveals that different landscape features facilitate and inhibit movements of pollinators, providing an empirical basis to map and assess functional landscape connectivity that can help cities identify and create connected networks of habitat for essential pollinators.

The concept of pollinator corridors isn’t new, but its application to suburban Long Island represents a critical evolution in conservation strategy. These corridors consist of public and private pesticide-free corridors of native plants that provide nutrition and habitat for pollinating insects and birds, where even the smallest green spaces, like flower boxes and curb strips, can be part of a pathway.

Long Island’s Unique Challenges and Opportunities

Long Island’s dense suburban development presents both challenges and opportunities for creating effective pollinator superhighways. One of the driving factors of population decline in bees is habitat loss, with human activities contributing to bees’ habitat destruction and consequently their decline. However, the region’s extensive residential landscapes offer unprecedented potential for creating connected habitat networks.

Cornell Cooperative Extension’s research on Long Island has shown that pollinator-friendly gardens filled with tips for creating pollinator-friendly environments feature information on how to support bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, moths and birds by planting native habitat for them. This local expertise has become invaluable as homeowners seek to transform their properties into pollinator havens.

Creating Effective Garden Corridors

Successful pollinator superhighways require strategic planning that considers both individual property design and broader landscape connectivity. Native plants are highly recommended because they are uniquely adapted to local weather fluctuations, require little or no fertilizer, are excellent food sources for pollinators, and provide habitat for birds, insects, and butterflies, with their deep roots increasing the water-holding capacity of the soil once established.

Professional Landscaping Design on Long Island companies like DLZ Construction and Landscaping are playing a crucial role in this conservation effort. With over two decades of experience serving Suffolk and Nassau counties, DLZ specializes in creating comprehensive landscape designs that can incorporate pollinator-friendly elements while maintaining aesthetic appeal and property value.

The Role of Professional Landscaping Services

Creating effective pollinator corridors requires expertise in plant selection, site preparation, and long-term maintenance strategies. DLZ Construction and Landscaping’s approach to sustainable landscaping aligns perfectly with pollinator conservation goals. Their commitment to using quality materials and providing personalized service ensures that pollinator gardens are both beautiful and functional.

The company’s expertise in landscape lighting, seasonal plant rotation, and water feature installation can enhance pollinator habitats while creating stunning outdoor spaces. Their understanding of Long Island’s unique soil conditions and climate patterns makes them ideally positioned to help homeowners create gardens that support both human enjoyment and pollinator survival.

Beyond Individual Gardens: Community-Wide Impact

Inspired by conservation work, organizations are implementing new planting and maintenance strategies to build perennial, self-sustaining pollinator corridors where bees, monarch butterflies, and other at-risk species can thrive. This community-scale approach is essential for creating the connected networks that pollinators need to survive and thrive.

Research shows that thoughtful mowing schedules, reduced herbicide use, and native plantings can turn corridors into connected, thriving habitat, with roadsides featuring diverse wildflowers supporting more bees and butterflies than conventional turf or gravel shoulders. These findings demonstrate that even marginal spaces can contribute significantly to pollinator conservation when properly managed.

Economic and Environmental Benefits

The benefits of pollinator superhighways extend far beyond conservation. Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food, and without their actions, agricultural economies, our food supply, and surrounding landscapes would collapse.

For Long Island homeowners, pollinator-friendly landscaping offers multiple advantages: reduced maintenance costs, increased property values, and the satisfaction of contributing to environmental conservation. Native plant gardens typically require less water, fertilizer, and pest control than traditional landscaping, making them both economically and environmentally sustainable.

The Future of Pollinator Conservation on Long Island

As we face the reality of continued bee population declines, the importance of connected garden corridors cannot be overstated. Analysis indicates that while some regions may face further declines unless significant conservation efforts are implemented, regions facing declines that adopt stronger conservation policies and sustainable farming practices could stabilize and even boost their bee populations in the years ahead.

The success of pollinator superhighways on Long Island will depend on widespread participation from homeowners, businesses, and municipalities. By working with experienced landscaping professionals who understand both aesthetic design and ecological function, property owners can create beautiful spaces that serve as vital links in a growing network of pollinator habitat.

As we move forward in 2025, the creation of connected garden corridors represents one of our most promising strategies for reversing bee population declines. Through thoughtful landscape design and community-wide participation, Long Island can become a model for suburban pollinator conservation, proving that beautiful gardens and thriving bee populations can coexist in harmony.