Cover Crops: Environmental Impacts

Cover crops can improve water quality, sequester atmospheric carbon and promote pollinators and beneficial insects.

Ecosystem Services from Cover Crops

These Ecosystem Services from Cover Crops resources look at the impacts of cover crops on water quality, carbon sequestration, wildlife, pollinators and other ecosystem services. The resource series contains five “Cover Crop Facts” publications, three infographics and one water quality slide set.

Cover Cropping for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects

This 16-page bulletin will help you use cover crops to encourage populations of pollinators and beneficial insects on your farm while you address your other resource concerns. Download File (840.79 kB) | Online Text Version

Native bees and flowering cover crops

While managed colonies of European honey bees are most frequently used for crop pollination, wild or native bees commonly provide the same pollination services for ‘free’ without the costs of renting or maintaining honey bee hives.Download File (382.18 kB)

Agroecological Strategies to Enhance On-Farm Insect Pollinators

This chapter from Manage Insects on Your Farm describes how to use cover crops, hedgerows, reduced tillage and other strategies to support native pollinators and beneficial insects.

Dig deeper into cover crops research: SARE has funded hundreds of research and education projects related to cover crops since 1988. This topic room features only a glimpse into SARE’s entire portfolio of cover crop research. To discover more, visit SARE’s database of projects and conduct full text or advanced keyword searches.