Bayer CropScience has pledged $100,000 to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to be used for the development of roadside pollinator plantings this spring. This news release from the company says the project covers about 46 new acres of bee-attractant vegetation alongside North Carolina’s roads and highways, such as wildflower beds that promote honey bee population development and support crop pollination.

“This investment is a down payment on the sustainable health of pollinators in North Carolina and a model for how public-private partnerships, like that between Bayer and NCDOT, can benefit the environment and state,” said Jim Blome, president and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP. “Bayer is dedicated to the establishment of new habitat for honey bees that will allow them to flourish, as they continue to play a critical role in creating sustainable agriculture.”

This is just the latest of Bayer’s partnerships across the country in its recently launched Feed a Bee campaign that has a goal of growing 50 million flowers and providing additional forage acreage for bees in 2015.

This is NCDOT’s 30th year of planting wildflowers annually across North Carolina and has been transitioning the state’s roadsides to incorporate a native planting zone that provides suitable habitat for many pollinator species.

“Bayer’s partnership will go a long way to continuing to bolster the aesthetic appeal of North Carolina’s highways and expanding forage for pollinators,” said Don Lee, unit head of the NCDOT’s Roadside Environmental division. “The wildflower beds and native habitat along our roadsides set North Carolina apart, and this investment will help us increase sustainability and improve the environment for our honey bees in the process.”