From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 2, April 2021.
Community gardens are a valuable social, ecological, and environmental resource, but we currently know very little about the pollinator species visiting them, their ecology, and the impact of human activity on their populations in Washington, DC. Intentionally or not, organic community gardens provide food and shelter for wildlife such as birds, mammals, snails and slugs, insects, spiders and even roly poly crustaceans. Gardeners are intricately connected to nature and in one sense are wildlife managers.
A new citizen scientist project, PolliNation DC, is being launched on April 30, 2021. The project encourages DC community garden volunteers to record the bee, butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, ant, and other insect species visiting flowers and acting as pollinators for both native and non-native plants in DC community garden sites. The DC Department of Parks and Recreation manages 35 community gardens across the 8 Wards of the District. The native plant gardens at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the U.S. Botanical Garden (USBG) will serve as control sites. The collected data will help the research team understand which insect species are visiting which native and non-native plant species in an urban environment.
The iNaturalist app is a place for the public to record their observations and to browse those of others at other DC community garden locations. PolliNation DC encourages the public to document urban pollinators and all other wildlife in the gardens to share with the community, and to take some satisfaction getting to know native wildlife. The project site has a journal for recent updates and information.
The launch of PolliNation DC, which will run for the entire growing season, coincides with the City Nature Challenge. The four-day Challenge, from April 30 – May 3, is an international effort for people to find and document wildlife in cities across the globe. Citizen scientists will look for all signs of life in local parks, neighborhoods, and backyards to see what plants and animals share their environment. Please visit the City Nature Challenge website and find out if a city near you is participating in the Challenge. Everyone in a participating metropolitan area with access to a camera and the internet can participate using the iNaturalist app.
The PolliNation DC research team is comprised of Robert Costello (NMNH National Outreach Program Manager), Gary Krupnick (NMNH Head of the Plant Conservation Unit), and Simon Bird (Center for Sustainable Development and Resilience, University of the District of Columbia).
Left: The DC Department of Parks and Recreation manages 35 community gardens across the 8 Wards of the District of Columbia. Right: Brown-belted bumble bee (Bombus griseocollis) visiting common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). (photo by Gary Krupnick)
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