Mapping Pollinator Hotspots in Riley Park Community Garden

Goal: Celebrating and mapping the essential relationships between Community Gardens and Pollinators

First Lori will train the participants how to recognize key pollinators: several types of bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, and hummingbirds. She will show key plants in the garden and help participants name and tag them.

Each person will have to chance to choose from Lori’s collection of costumes to dress as their favorite pollinator. (People are also encouraged to come dressed as their favorite pollinator).

Working as citizen scientists, we will break into groups and observe sections of the garden for several three minute intervals, recording how many pollinators we see on key plants. Participants are also welcome to use their cameras to record their observations and post them on social media.

Then we will meet and share information, revisiting the hotspots where we saw the most pollinator action, evaluating the biodiversity of pollinator attracted to each section of the garden.

Lori will collect the data and create a mapping blog post collating photographs and observations.