Pollinators of the North American Great Plains evolved with a heterogeneous and shifting mosaic of vegetative patches created by different fire and grazing interactions. Habitat heterogeneity provides fundamental pollinator resources that often occur in dissimilar habitat types across the landscape. The Flint Hills ecoregion contains 80% of all remaining native tallgrass prairie in North America, yet the rangelands covering 90% of this ecoregion are managed for uniformity in vegetative structure and plant species composition. This homogeneity rarely provides all pollinator resource needs or corridors necessary for finding resources in adjacent areas. Pollinator communities are fundamental to cattle and crop gains, as well as ecosystem stability, and their decline in the Great Plains is partially due to rangeland management practices. Patch-burn grazing (PBG) is a rangeland management technique that promotes habitat heterogeneity while maintaining cattle weight gains. We assessed the conservation value of PBG to increase pollinator diversity and abundance by means of an increase in feeding, breeding and nesting habitat on working rangelands in the Flint Hills ecoregion. PBG effectively introduced habitat heterogeneity (Ps<0.001) and increased plant diversity and relative species abundance (P<0.001) on studied rangelands. Results from pollinator surveys showed a significant increase in pollinator diversity and abundance in PBG (Ps<0.05), and significant spatial and temporal shifts in community composition (Ps<0.05) compared to traditionally managed pastures. Moreover, three grass skippers on the Kansas List of Species of Greatest Conservation Need were found only in PBG pastures.
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