EQB pollinator team previews 2025 report; agencies outline action framework and community outreach

Rebecca Gutierrez Moreno, state pollinator coordinator and representative of the Interagency Pollinator Protection Team, presented draft contents of the 2025 pollinator report to the Environmental Quality Board on April 16 and asked for board feedback on focus and presentation.

The report responds to Executive Order 1928, which directs the EQB to convene the interagency team and present annual progress. Gutierrez Moreno said the report will summarize progress on a three-goal action framework: (1) restore and manage lands to support pollinators (more food resources, nesting and overwintering sites); (2) reduce impacts from pesticides through integrated pest management; and (3) grow public understanding, support and community commitments, a third goal led by the EQB.

Gutierrez Moreno said the draft will center on implementation of an action framework first developed in 2022–23 and prioritized in 2024. The report will include an agency highlights section, a pollinator action-framework progress matrix (with status flags such as “in progress” or “completed”), implementation challenges and short success stories from state agencies and partners. She described the matrix as showing actions, projects to implement them, lead agencies or partners, and status for each action.

The presenter outlined outreach and engagement activities planned for 2025: EQB staff and partners will distribute native-seed packets at partner events (she said EQB had about 44,000 seed packets and the Department of Natural Resources had about 20,000 packets available to agencies), coordinate at least three webinars (including a city-to-city webinar and sessions for farmers and fall pollinator topics), host a pollinator day at the Minnesota State Fair Eco Experience Building and participate in the North American Monarch Summit in Minneapolis this June.

Board members asked questions and offered feedback on report scope and emphasis. Board member (first name not recorded in the audio) asked for more context about the status of pollinators across Minnesota’s ecoregions and the challenge of fragmented, patchy habitat; Gutierrez Moreno said the team plans to address habitat connectivity and noted grant programs are being discussed to help target strategic habitat investments. Commissioner Peterson and others raised concerns about potential impacts if federal assistance programs (for example, Natural Resources Conservation Service-supported plantings) face workforce or funding reductions, and asked staff to track those programmatic changes.

Board member Brands praised collaboration with GreenStep Cities (the presenter noted GreenStep partnership and said staff would coordinate with the program on a city-to-city webinar). Gutierrez Moreno also noted the IPPT’s work with a relaunched youth STEM workforce program, Roots for the Future, which would create opportunities for Twin Cities high‑school youth to engage on pollinator projects.

Gutierrez Moreno summarized the team’s proposed next steps: continue interagency collaboration, track implementation of prioritized actions, and prepare the annual report for the board with the matrix and documented progress.

The board provided general positive feedback and no formal action was taken. The EQB staff said they will return with a draft report and will incorporate board feedback about habitat connectivity, program dependencies and public engagement opportunities.

Sources: presentation and board Q&A, Rebecca Gutierrez Moreno (State Pollinator Coordinator), Environmental Quality Board meeting, April 16, 2025.