Darien student works to save pollinators, planet
DARIEN — For Kiran Ebrahimi, learning about the decline in the population of insects around the world was a startling discovery.
That’s why, after delving into some research — and one New York Times article in particular — Ebrahimi, 17 and a rising senior at Darien High, sought to find a way to help.
“I had to get involved in the fight to save our pollinators and our planet,” he said, deciding to use his Eagle Scout project as a way to focus on the problem.
Over the course of last year Ebrahimi — with the help of some other scouts and a wide range of community members — installed a pollinator garden in the courtyard of his high school.
“The project took over a year from start to finish,” he said, “and involved hundreds of hours of research, fundraising emails, and correspondence with gardening centers.”
At the heart of Ebrahimi’s project is the immediacy of what he described as a “global biodiversity crisis” in which some of the smaller participants in the food chain are facing grave circumstances.
“Human-made structures like roads and buildings disrupt the journey many pollinators take to pollinate plants,” he said. “Bees frequently furnish their nest with pollen from native plants … Native plants provide nesting and overwintering sites for bees, caterpillars, and a vast number of other insects.”
By creating a garden replete with native plants to provide a home and resting place for these little critters, it ultimately can help strengthen the global ecosystem at large.
The Pollinator Pathway was the brainchild of a Wilton environmentalist named Donna Merrill, who in 2016 was working on regionalized conservation projects and came up with the idea of connecting pollinator habitats between municipalities.
Since that time they have been formed running through eight different northeast states and Canada, as well as Oregon. Thousands of residents in hundreds of municipalities are doing their part to make their own backyards safer and more pollinator friendly, reducing chemical use on lawns and plants, introducing more native species, and letting portions of their lawns grow wild in order to aid the survival of the creatures.
Ebrahimi sought the help of Deepika Saksena, cofounder of the Darien Pollinator Pathway, with the garden, which includes an array of coneflowers, rudbeckia, and five ginkgo trees.
“We provided advice and plant lists that Kiran used to design and plant the garden,” she said.
“Pollinators are declining globally,” she said, with 40 percent of them — mostly bees — actually facing extinction.
“One of the main reasons for this decline is the loss of habitat due to urban development and intensive farming,” Saksena said. “What makes this project cool is that by planting a pollinator garden, (Darien High School) has become a part of the Darien Pollinator Pathway.
She commended the scout on his work, noting he did an exceptional job planning and implementing the garden.
“He showed enthusiasm for — and awareness of — the necessity to protect pollinators,” she said, “which I’m sure will have an enduring effect on his environmental appreciation.”
Ebrahimi, meanwhile, intends to pursue a career in medicine, possibly as a surgeon.
As well as working as an EMT at Post 53, more recently he was accepted into the Yale Discovery Cure Science program for this summer, and also won the Bausch and Lomb Science Award this year for high school juniors.
Ebrahimi encourages people to stop by and visit the courtyard garden.
“Take a moment during the warm summer months,” he said, “and witness the vibrant colors and verdant textures.”