Carleton students and community unite to champion pollinator gardens
Group member Jack Collins at Lansdowne advocating for pollinator gardens
Photos: Della Wilkinson
Carleton students and community unite to champion pollinator gardens
By Jiire Fowler and Alexander Crosier
A group of Carleton University students is working with community representatives to enhance the effectiveness of pollinator gardens in the Glebe.
In the last several years, there has been an alarming decline in pollinator populations in Canada. Key pollinator species such as wild bees are declining by over 30 per cent in some regions, largely due to habitat loss. Those declines impact the health of ecosystems and also threaten food security. Pollinators are essential to Canadian agriculture, responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat.
Pollinator gardens have been a crucial element in conservation efforts for decades, aimed at restoring habitats and promoting biodiversity in response to the alarming loss of pollinators. They are specially designed green spaces for native plants that provide food, shelter and breeding grounds for pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds and other insects. By creating safe habitats for essential pollinating species, these gardens play a significant role in supporting biodiversity and enhancing local ecosystems.
There are pollinator gardens throughout the Glebe. Notable locations include Mutchmor and First Avenue public schools. We also have indigenous gardens at Lansdowne Park and in front of Glebe St-James United Church. As well, there are the lively gardens maintained by the Garden Angels, including their most recent addition at the intersection of Imperial and Renfrew avenues.
These gardens thrive due to the support of the Glebe Community Association (GCA) and passionate volunteers led by the Garden Angels. The GCA, the Garden Angels and the Community Association for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) spearhead initiatives aimed at increasing the visibility of these gardens and amplifying their impact in the community. The Fletcher Wildlife Garden is also part of the collaboration (https://ofnc.ca/programs/fletcher-wildlife-garden/make-your-own-wildlife-garden) and provided helpful information on how to create pollinator gardens.
These gardens flourish thanks to the unwavering dedication of their volunteers, who invest countless hours of hard work in their upkeep. However, their efforts often go unrecognized and underappreciated.
We are writing on behalf of a group of our peers at Carleton University. As a component of the Foundations in Community Engagement course, we have partnered with representatives from these community groups in the Glebe. Through this partnership, we learned of the importance of pollinator gardens and the need to support their sustainability. Our project goal is to support the ongoing efforts of these community representatives in advancing pollinator gardens in the Glebe to help sustain the bird, bee and butterfly populations. We aim to develop projects that raise awareness about local pollinator gardens, emphasize the importance of education about sustaining pollination and promote collective responsibility through continuous community engagement. Our group features students from diverse fields of study. Team members are Alexander Crosier, Seamus Miller, Jiire Fowler, Jack Conlin, Drew Escano, Koshi Diddi, Fotini Kola, Grace Taylor, Sahare Ebrahimi-Sirizi, and GeHui Li. The representatives from these Glebe community associations working directly with us are Linda Bruce, Jim Louter and Della Wilkinson.
“Team Glebe” is dedicated to planning a variety of initiatives to meet our goals. Most recently, Grace Taylor completed a children’s map highlighting the pollinator gardens in the Glebe. This map is accessible for young children and offers them an opportunity to engage in this project. Taylor is willing to share her worksheet with teachers in local schools.
We’ve also advocated for pollinator gardens at the Lansdowne farmers’ market. Our team is also working on creating signage within the pollinator gardens to recognize hard work that people put in to make them thrive. These signs will include QR codes linking to resources that promote ongoing education about pollinator gardens.
Our project is just beginning to take off, and we are eager to see how it unfolds. Engaging the Glebe community is essential, as the success of pollinator gardens relies on collective support. We encourage you to follow the GCA’s Environment Committee at (@gcaenviro175 and think about planting pollinator plants in your garden next spring. Your involvement is crucial.
Jiire Fowler is a second-year Bachelor of Arts Honors Law student at Carleton University. Alexander Crosier is a second-year Carleton Bachelor of Sociology student and a campus radio volunteer. Both are students in the Foundations of Community Engagement course in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, working with the Community Association for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES), the Glebe Community Association and the Garden Angels to promote pollinator gardens in the Glebe.
