Growing the future
Pollinator Census
The Great Southeast Pollinator Census
Join The Count
On Saturday, August 24th, the Community Garden@Snellville, in partnership with Girl Scouts from throughout the Brookwood Cluster under the leadership of Nicole Tilford, participated in the Great Southeast Pollinator Census, a citizen science project established by the University of Georgia. The census is designed for citizens of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida of all ages. The pilot project launched in 2017 with 50 gardens and has grown every year since. The project is simple enough for anyone to pick up some basic entomology, get involved, and make a difference for pollinator conservation. The project is guided by three primary objectives: to create sustainable pollinators habitats; to enhance the entomological knowledge of citizens and to generate valuable data about our pollinator population.
This year’s event at the Community Garden@Snellville focused on educating students about pollinators and observing their behaviors. The Girl Scouts were working towards earning their Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey, which is an official badge program designed to teach girls how to think like a scientist and participate in real science projects. Throughout the event, the girls engaged in games aimed at teaching the different types of pollinators being observed, sharpened their observation skills, learned about issues affecting pollinators, and developed a take action plan to help with these issues. A total of 25 students joined in, each choosing a pollinator plant to monitor and counting the number of pollinators that visited it during the 15-minute observation period. There were also six adults who joined in, for a total of 31 participants.
Most students observed Zinnia flowers, but some chose to observe Garlic Chives, Marigolds, Mexican Sunflowers, Basil, Purple Woodsage, and Scarlet Rosemallow. Students discovered that butterflies and moths loved Zinnia plants. They would visit a plant, leave, and come back over and over again. Carpenter bees, on the other hand, preferred Garlic Chives. Altogether, students counted over 3000 times that pollinators landed on different plants throughout the garden. The students had a great time learning about pollinators and watching them in action.
We wish to express our gratitude to our fellow community garden Master Gardeners, Kathleen Keyes, Karen Hanley, and Kathy Pittman for their commitment and effort in facilitating community education initiatives like these and ensuring their successful implementation. Should you have any projects, programs, or organizations that could benefit from our support, please feel free to contact a member of our Greenhouse Management Team. For further details, kindly visit our website at Community Garden@Snellville.com