Simsbury group working to support pollinators
Partnership with town aims to create pathways to help them thrive
SIMSBURY — While counteracting the human toll on the Earth may seem like a daunting task, a Simsbury couple has taken up the task, creating Simsbury Pollinator Pathway, a volunteer not-for-profit organization working to educate the public on the importance of pollinators and to create pollinator-friendly spaces throughout the town.
“I think a lot of this has to do with being aware of your responsibility and your place in the environment, which is to do no harm. I mean that’s the important thing,” Simsbury Pollinator Pathways
President Nancy Grandin said. “Then if you go beyond that, you can actually enhance it.”
Over 85% of flowering plants across the world depend on pollinators — hummingbirds, bats,
bees, butterflies and other insects — while about two-thirds of the world’s crops rely on pollinators, according to the National Wild
life Federation and the U.S. Food and Agriculture Organization. However, populations of pollinators are internationally declining due to habitat loss, pesticides and other factors, according to the National Park Service.
“We’ve reached this era of human intervention that’s affecting this planet,” said Joe Campolieta, Grandin’s husband. “We’re polluting and we’re burning down rainforests, and that’s bad, but then ... why don’t we [interfere to] do something good, which is to take the time to plant this stuff, get rid of some of your lawn, not use pesticides.”
A key way to support pollinators — which experts say help to produce one in every three bites of food — is to create “pollinator paths,” series of connected pollinator-friendly spaces throughout the town.
Those linked spaces will allow pollinators to move freely with plenty of access to healthy native habitats, Grandin said. Connecticut has over 300 native species of bees, but they can only fly a half to 1 miles, depending on the species, to reach their next meal.
Pollinator-friendly spaces may include residences, sports fields, restoration sites, open spaces, meadows, woodlands, home gardens, golf courses, cemeteries, business-owned lands, roadsides, traffic buffers, bridges, parks, religious institutions and other municipal lands that have been populated with native plants.
On Aug. 9, the Simsbury Board of Selectmen declared the town a pollinator-friendly community, pledging to work with Simsbury Pollinator Pathway to alter its maintenance protocols for public properties and to plant two pollinator gardens this fall on public properties.
The work to support pollinators in town is beneficial for both the town and the environment, Wellman said. “[Native plants] are beautiful, they require less water and upkeep, and ... it’s going to save the town money in maintenance,” Wellman said.
Changing its approach to lawn maintenance, including frequency of mowing and how pesticides are used, will lower costs to the town, increase carbon sequestration, decrease runoff and pollution and enhance the town’s beauty, according to Simsbury Pollinator Pathway.
Around town, the work is already underway. The Simsbury Public Library now has raised planting beds on its front lawns, and two local religious institutions — First Church of Christ and Simsbury United Methodist Church — have pollinator gardens.
“We’re going to look into grants,” Grandin said. “Hopefully, we can fund large-scale projects for the town.”
Several pollinator pathway connections were also created at the Simsbury Farms golf course and town parks, while local volunteers have worked with town staff to remove invasive species at the town’s newest park — Hopbrook Landing at the Flower Bridge — and replanted native flowers and plants.
The organization intends to host several public seminars in the near future, Grandin said.
“There’s no secret handshake. There’s no initiation,” she said, to contribute and support the project. “It’s just your commitment to doing the right thing for the environment, and we’ll help you get there.”
“I’m also looking at ways we can start to recognize homeowners and businesses that are planting these gardens, with some kind of proclamation, a plaque, that they can put up to acknowledge the work that they’re doing,” Wellman said.
The Pollinator Pathway Program originated in Washington state with designer Sarah Bergmann in 2007. Since then, neighborhoods across the country have developed their own pathways; there are over a dozen communities in Connecticut with established and developing pathways — such as Greenwich, Trumbull and Weston.
“You don’t need to start by digging up your entire lawn and planting a pollinator garden,” Wellman said. “You can start just by putting some native plants or native flowers just around your mailbox, and maybe the next year you build something a little bit larger.”
Individuals can support the project and Simsbury Pollinator Pathway by volunteering, donating or planting native plants at home; for more information visit simsburypollina torpath.org.