For my undergraduate thesis project, Pollinate the Palouse, I organized a Butterfly Garden Project where I first involved a local boy-scout group to help me seed the area in late fall with native grasses and wildflowers that would sprout early in the spring to compete with invasive weeds. I also outreached to the University of Idaho Landscape Architecture Club to collaborate with designing my Butterfly Garden. This not only beautified my garden plans but provided the landscape architecture students a chance have hands on experience and see one of their plans come to life.
Pollinate the Palouse
It is the little things that rule the world. Pollinators are vitally important in a sustainable ecosystem and are often considered bioindicators of an areas health. Comparing the 1994 to 2004 monarch population average with the 2004 to 2014 average, monarch populations have decreased by more than 40% and other butterfly populations are facing similar declines (Mizejewski 2017). Bee populations have also been suffering. Although there’s a combination of reasons for these declines, which include parasites and disease, pollinators are more susceptible to these when they are stressed. One of the greatest environmental stressers pollinators face is loss of habitat. Whenever humans move into a new area it is often accompanied by paved streets and green trimmed lawns that don't provide any food or shelter for pollinators. If we want to become a more sustainable people we need to bring natural biodiversity back into our living and work areas.This is why I took the initiative to apply for funding through the UI sustainability center.
Although the construction of this garden was completed in April 2018, it continues as an ongoing project through the Society for Conservation Biology UI Chapter.
