Senate Bill S6339A

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S6339A

SPONSOR: RITCHIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the agriculture and markets law, in
relation to guidelines for pollinator protection

 
PURPOSE:

To make it state policy to encourage the development on solar array
sites of landscapes that are beneficial to pollinators by establishing
minimum state guidelines.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 provides the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets the
authority to develop minimum guidelines for vegetation management for
persons or entities claiming that their property, including electric
generating systems, is pollinator friendly. The section directs that the
minimum guidelines must provide guidance on both short-term and long-
term property management practices, which provide and maintain native
vegetation that protects pollinators. The section does not restrict any
              

farming practices that do not make such claims.

Section 2 states that the act shall take effect 90 days after this bill
shall have become law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

According to the New York State Pollinator Taskforce, New York State is
home to more than 450 pollinator species that are currently under threat
from habitat loss and fragmentation, colony collapse disorder, para-
sites, exposure to toxins, and other stressors. In 2016, it was esti-
mated that New York State had lost over fifty percent of its managed
pollinator colonies and over seventy percent of its commercial migratory
bees. Wild pollinators have also seen their numbers suffer, with the
Department of Environmental Conservation listing seven species of bees
and twenty-seven species of butterfly or moths as being Species of
Greatest Conservation Need.

This is a critical issue since New York has 7.3 million acres in agri-
culture production, and many of our leading crops, such as apples,
alfalfa, soybeans, cabbage, pumpkins, and berries, rely heavily on poll-
ination. Pollinator friendly habitats can take many forms, and be a
variety of sizes. Though many contiguous acres are best, studies have
shown that even "pollinator enhancement strips", small edge pieces of
land managed to promote the presence of pollinators, also have a posi-
tive correlation with fruit growth.  Solar power facilities often
provide ideal pollinator habitat because they constitute large contig-
uous acreage, are maintained in sunny areas, and have low vegetation
height. A variety of plant species with a high percentage of forbs (a
herbaceous flowering plant like a sunflower), vegetation that would
allow nesting or overwintering such as shrubs or grasses, and at least
three flowering species in each bloom period. Loss of pollinators can
impact the value of New York State's agricultural production, which
currently totals $6.36 billion, and would seriously diminish this pillar
of the state's economy which provides 197,745 jobs.

At the same time, New York State is estimating the private industry will
build more than 6,000 acres of solar sites by 2020, and many of these
sites will be built on or near agricultural production sites.  Some of
these sites will choose to leave native plants around the solar site,
and provide crucial habitat and forage for pollinators.  Given the crit-
ical state of New York's pollinators, some solar site owners have made
public claims that their land management practices directly benefit
pollinators, and are therefore more eco-friendly, in an attempt to
better market the solar energy they produce.

Given the wide support for pollinators currently, it is important to
establish standards for solar sites that wish to claim they are pollina-
tor friendly, so that consumers know that the owners of such sites are
delivering on their claims. This legislation would direct the Commis-
sioner of Agriculture and Markets to create guidelines for owners who
wish to publically claim that their property, including solar sites, is
beneficial to pollinators. Such guidelines would include short-term and
long-term minimum standards for biodiversity and land management prac-
tices. This legislation promotes greater pollinator protection, but does
so without restricting farming practices for farms who do not make
public claims regarding pollinator benefits.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect within 90 days.