Pollinator Project
About the Project
The Blomidon Naturalists Society has joined the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project, to create pollinator friendly gardens across the country. The Blomidon Naturalists Society is working to support biodiversity, pollinators and native plants in the Kings County Area. Our focus is on planting public pollinator gardens with educational signage, but we also encourage wildlife habitat support and sustainable practices in the home garden. Our public demonstration gardens, along with a wealth of information offered on this web site, will promote and support local towns, institutions, businesses and individuals to do more to support pollinators in their outdoor areas.
Our Mission
We aim to raise awareness about pollinators, their importance, their plight and the consequences of biodiversity loss, and ways we can all support our pollinators and foster biodiversity in our yards and communities!
We planted two gardens in 2021, four gardens in 2022 and one garden in 2023 at the Prsecott House Museum. The campaign for 2023/24 moves the focus to individuals and their home gardens. We will support and encourage people to add native plants and to change to sustainable gardening practices such as delayed mowing in the spring and less yard clean-up in the fall.
Our Gardens
We currently have 7 public pollinator gardens for educational purpose in the Annapolis Valley.
Wolfville: Clock Park; RCMP garden (along Gaspereau Ave), Rail Trail garden and re-wilding zone (on trail behind Acadia Athletics complex).
Port Williams: Port Williams Park, Prescott House Museum.
Kentville: Miner’s Marsh entrance, Valley Community Learning Association’s Community Hub (118 Oakdene Ave).
Why We Need pollinators
Pollinators of all sorts – bees, butterflies, beetles, birds, bats – are responsible for sustaining our ecosystems and their biodiversity, and, necessary for us, pollinating our food. 90% of flowering plants need animal pollination, and about 1/3 of the food we eat requires pollination, specifically nutrient-rich foods like fruits, seeds, vegetables and more. Native bees, it has been found in numerous studies, are in many cases more effective pollinators than honeybees at transferring pollen, both in terms of pollinating the wild plants in our landscape, but also our food crops. However, declining habitat, pests and diseases, pesticides, climate change, invasive species and other factors are causing a serious loss of pollinators, especially native pollinators like many bee species and butterflies. Given the decline of pollinators, and the ensuring grave implications for the future of our food systems and ecosystems, planting pollinator gardens is an important, empowering, and beautiful task.
“Restoring habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where
we farm and graze, will go a long way toward building biological
corridors that connect preserved habitat fragments with one another.”
Douglas W. Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard