The Senate passed Resolution 580 "Recognizing the importance of pollinators to ecosystem health and agriculture in the United States and the value of partnership efforts to increase awareness about pollinators and support for protecting and sustaining pollinators by designating June 24 though June 30, 2007, as 'National Pollinator Week'." Read Resolution 580. National Pollinator Week 2008 was June 22 through June 28, 2008. To get more information about the upcoming National Pollinator Week, planned for June 22 through June 28, 2009, click here.

Additionally, Mike Johans, Secretary of Agriculture at the United States Department of Agriculture, issued a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to join in celebrating the vital significance of pollinators to agriculture and to public lands as well as the Department's conservation assistance to farmers and ranchers and its management of ecosystems providing valuable pollinator habitats through the Nation, and recognizing National Pollinator Week. Read the Proclamation.

Copyright 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved. Steve Buchanan (artist).

The four-design, 20-stamp Pollination booklet was released during National Pollinator Week, June 24-30 2007. Depicted on the Pollination stamps by artist Steve Buchanan are four wildflowers and four pollinators. Two Morrison's bumble bees (Bombus morrisoni) are paired with purple or chaparral nightshade (Solanum xanti) (one of the bees is actively engaged in buzz pollination). A calliope hummingbird (Stellula calliope) sips from a hummingbird trumpet (Epilobium canum) blossom. A lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) prepares to "dive" into a saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) flower. And a southern dogface butterfly (Colias cesonia) visits prairie or common ironweed (Vernonta fasciculata).

The four stamps are arranged in two alternate and interlocking patterns. In one block, the pollinators form a central starburst. In the other, the flowers are arranged in the center. "These stamps are a special way to honor the beauty that is in our midst each day," said Yverne Pat Moore, Postmaster, Washington, D.C., U.S. Postal Service. "The animals featured on the stamps are beautiful ambassadors of nature." Read the U.S. Postal Service Press Release (U.S. Postal Service).