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Conservation of natural habitats and planting wildflower plots are two commonly promoted tactics to enhance pollination services and biological control of crop pests, which are ecosystem services that can improve agricultural outputs. There are several programs at various levels of government in the United States that landowners can use to defray the costs of implementing these conservation strategies. Studies of European Agricultural Environmental Schemes have shown these tactics to have positive outcomes for crop production. However, real-world applications of cost-sharing programs have not been evaluated in the United States on pollination services and biological control. Furthermore, these tactics may inadvertently perform ecosystem disservices, like increasing crop pests or creating habitat for disease vectors. In this study, we evaluated the effects of natural habit and wildflower plots on biological control, pollination services, bee communities, and tick populations in Eastern Virginia and Maryland. This research was conducted on 22 farms. 10 of these farms had wildflower plots that were designed by Natural Resource Conservation Service personnel, and implemented by cooperating farmers. Collards, strawberries, tomatoes, and squash were used as model systems. We measured pest density, sentinel egg predation, crop damage, seed pollination, biomass production, marketable crop yield, sampled the bee community, and recorded tick abundance in wildflower plots. Many of the measures of biological control and pollination services had idiosyncratic results in regards to the wildflower plots and natural habit in the landscape. However, the proportion of high quality yield for all four crops increased with increasing natural habitat in the landscape. Bee communities between sites with and without wildflower plots were not different. Bee abundance did increase at wildflower sites when natural habitat comprised a certain proportion of the habitat around the site. Ticks were sampled from wildflower plantings, but not in greater abundance compared to field margins. In this study, the effects of wildflower plots were overshadowed by the landscape effects of natural habitat. Government personnel that oversee these programs may need to consider the surrounding landscape when helping implement on-farm conservation measure like wildflower plots. Such measures, do not perform an ecosystem disservice in regards to ticks.

This study introduces New Zealand's coastal/marine environment as both a natural habitat and a natural resource complex. It outlines the unique management features and characteristics of New Zealand's marine environment and describes its habitats and species. It examines the conflicts that are arising because this environment is functioning as both a natural resource complex and a natural habitat. The study then presents a rationale for, and the likely benefits and costs of, a Marine Protected Area (M.P.A.) programme as part of a policy of 'Marine Conservation'. An approach to natural resource management to achieve a policy of 'Marine Conservation' based on a 'goal' orientated approach to planning is introduced. Appropriate policies, goals objectives, categories and criteria of marine protected areas (M.P.As.) are proposed. A number of categories of M.P.A., designated with specific reference to the selected goals and objectives, are presented. This new approach links criteria for selection of M.P.A. sites directly to the policy of marine conservation and the goals and objectives of a M.P.A. programme. In conclusion this study evaluates the likely success of the M.P.A. programme proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (M.A.F.) (1985) in achieving the goals and objectives of marine conservation. In doing so the goal oriented approach to planning is suggested as being a better alternative.