Why Biodiversity Restoration and Solar Farms should be synonymous.

Catrin Einhorn of The New York TImes published an interesting article this morning about the fight to create native plant pollinator meadows on solar farms and the trickiness of regulating this practice. Einhorn traveled to California and Minnesota to document solar farms that have successfully integrated many native plants in the landscape and altered standard designs to allow for taller native plants—and those who have not delivered what they promised. The impact of these plants as we know not only provides food and habitat for insects, but brings birds and other wildlife back to areas that have been stripped of biodiversity—and these plants are also vital components to carbon sequestration! The problem is—solar farms are becoming more popular as our need to move to clean energy becomes vital, and there are not systems in place to require these native plant collaborations. Xerces Society is working on a certification process that will help distinguish solar farms that are actually providing adequate native pollinator habitats versus companies who add a few plants in the corner and call it a day and hopefully this will incentivize more solar farms to maximize their collaboration with nature and actively restore native pollinator habitats surrounding their panels. Read the full article by Einhorn and the New York Times below.