As many of you know, power line rights-of-way can be an important opportunity for Piedmont Prairies. Management of these areas, when done appropriately, could help maintain or restore prairies throughout the Piedmont. How much prairie could be restored through these rights-of-way? How might this help pollinators? Here are a few rough number that might help.

• There are about 840 miles of power lines in the Piedmont.

• After excluding areas in rights-of-way where prairie restoration is less feasible (e.g., heavily developed areas, water, wetlands), there are around 240,000 acres in power line rights-of-way in the Piedmont.

• Power line rights-of-way support 10 times the abundance of bees compared to forests

• Power line rights-of-way support twice the species richness of bees compared to forests

The first two numbers come from some early analysis in mapping Piedmont prairies for the partnership. The last two come from a recent study in New England looking at the impact of power lines on bees.

The data on power line locations are available here

There will also be some good sections in the upcoming Piedmont Prairies videos talking about the importance of power line rights-of-way and their roles in climate change adaptation. We’re still planning on having the videos ready by mid-December.