Young participants of the YMCA’s summer day camp planted swamp milkweeds in their pollinator garden on Wednesday, July 20. Following a presentation about monarch butterflies by the Lime Creek Nature Center, approximately 80 milkweeds were planted by children of all ages.
This series of four photos shows the Hoover Elementary pollinator garden as it was created this spring. The final step will be to add mulch. A lot of hard work and an awesome garden – great job Hoover Elementary!!
Staff members at Roosevelt gather in the courtyard after school to plant a butterfly garden. The “Sara Powell Memorial Butterfly Garden” is planted in honor of friend and colleague Sara Powell. Each staff member was able to place a planting in the garden in memory of Sara. The plants, landscape fabric and mulch were donated by Lime Creek Nature Center and the design, layout and digging of the garden was.
Students at Mason City High School (Mrs. Golnick) and West Fork Middle School (Mr. Weber) have been busy growing swamp and common milkweed plants from seed for our Monarch Mania program. The students have been transplanting the started plants into individual plugs so they will establish a strong root system and be ready for transplanting. Thank you to Mrs. Golnick, Mr. Weber, and all of the students for your hard.
We are excited to announce our Second Annual Quad Cities Pollinator Conference, to be held June 23 – 24, 2016. This conference is geared toward the agricultural community; municipal, state and federal government employees; landowners; homeowners and urban dwellers; beekeepers; students; and educators. The first day will take place at the River Center located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, and will consist of nearly 20 experts speaking on current pollinator issues, challenges, and opportunities. Morning tours.
Researchers are learning more about these energetic pollinators and their role in prairie and grassland conservation. by Crystal Boyd The prairie leapt in riotous colors as a gentle breeze rustled the wildflowers. Purple leadplant bowed and yellow coreopsis bent as I surveyed for bees. It was July 2014, and I was visiting Roscoe Prairie Scientific and Natural Area in Stearns County. This high-quality site potentially hosted great bee diversity, and.
GUELPH, Ontario, March 14 (UPI) — Bumblebees exposed to even low levels of pesticides have trouble acquiring the pollination skills necessary to retrieve nectar from some wildflowers — especially those with complex shapes. Researchers found bumblebees exposed to neonicotinoid insecticide took longer to collect pollen and sought pollen from different flowers than control bees. “Bees rely on learning to locate flowers, track their profitability and work-out how best to efficiently.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration needs to do more to help curtail the sharp decline in the U.S. bee population because the problem shows no signs of abating, the Government Accountability Office said Friday. The GAO, the independent investigative arm of Congress, said efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department to address the wide range of factors affecting bee health — including pests, disease and pesticide exposure — will be.
by Jen Mihills Whether your garden is in containers on an apartment balcony or sprawling over acres of open land, it can attract zebras and tigers. Ok, not the four-legged mammals you might be envisioning, but swallowtail butterflies. There are more than 550 species of swallowtail butterflies around the world. Although the majority are tropical, a number of swallowtails are found throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. The eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly is.
On Thursday, February 26, third graders at Clear Creek Elementary School participated in a “snow seeding” at their school’s outdoor classroom. The seeding took place on a previously disturbed area near the outdoor classroom prairie. The students planted a pollinator seed mix with 33 species of “pollinator friendly” native prairie grasses and wildflowers. The students also tossed hundreds of clay “seed balls” onto the area that they had made earlier.
By SETH BORENSTEIN WASHINGTON (AP) — Many species of wild bees, butterflies and other critters that pollinate plants are shrinking toward extinction, and the world needs to do something about it before our food supply suffers, a new United Nations scientific mega-report warns. The 20,000 or so species of pollinators are key to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of crops each year — from fruits and vegetables to coffee.
We have three citizen pollinator gardens registered with Monarch Mania! In addition, seven schools have signed up for pollinator garden plantings! Mason City Hoover, Roosevelt, and Jefferson Elementary schools; Mason City Alternative High School; Clear Creek Elementary (Clear Lake); and West Fork Middle and High School will be planting or adding to their pollinator gardens this spring. Spring is not far away – plan your garden and help us get more habitat out there.
