This past February, two of Save Our Seine’s members were accepted into the Butterflyway Project as Butterfly Rangers! The Butterflyway Project was created by the David Suzuki Foundation back in 2017. The project started with five cities and currently is in more than 100 communities, including over 1,000 Butterflyway Rangers! Butterflyway Rangers are volunteers that commit to helping establish local pollinator habitat in their communities. Rangers participate in monthly webinars & contribute in a variety of ways, such as hosting and participating in events and organizing plantings big and small.
Save Our Seine aims to help support our local pollinators through the creation of local habitat and connecting with our community. The Land Care Committee is currently working on building a strategy to support local pollinators along the 26 kilometers of the Seine River Greenway. The Land Care Committee is also collaborating with Niakwa Country Club through the means of advice and support on their monarch butterfly area and implementation of bee houses along their pollination area. The Public Education and Awareness Committee is embarking on a variety of initiatives such as virtual platform educational events in schools and hosting Pollinator Week! From June 21-27 Save Our Seine will be hosting a series of events!
In the meantime, you might be asking yourself... What can I do for our local bees and butterflies?
Here are 10 things you can do for the pollinators!
Create pollinator-friendly habitat in your yards and/or balconies.
Keep a corner of your yard messy – messy yards help bees!
Create insect-friendly habitats: Convert lawns into diverse natural habitats! Because many insects need little space to survive, even small changes from lawns to native plants or gardens can really help! A fun activity is to create a woodpile bug hotel!
Leave sunny soil patches for ground-nesting bees.
Provide a water source. Not too deep! Keep the water line lower than a rock, so bees have a place to land.
Lessen soap runoff and reduce the use of driveway salts in the winter. These can cause pollutants that can drain directly into local water systems, such as the Seine River.
Limit the use of outdoor lighting at night. The majority of nocturnal insects are attracted to artificial lights, and these lights are powerful traps that can hurt our insect population, including pollinators.
Learn more about local bees and butterflies at one of our events!
Encourage friends and neighbours to add native plants to their gardens.
Advocate for our municipality to create pollinator habitat and adopt pollinator-friendly practices! For more information, visit http://chng.it/c9PzSvZZ
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