Pollinator Pathways

So, we live in a lovely, quiet neighborhood on the west side of Portland, Oregon.   I have written in this blog before about how few songbirds we have around our home.  We never hear birds singing. When I was a kid, I grew up waking up to birds singing on Spring and Summer mornings. Not here. Part of the problem  may be crows and jays driving other birds out.  Part of it may be chemicals that people use nowadays on their lawns. Part of it could be kitties doing what comes naturally when they're free to roam.  

I would not say that bees are uncommon in my neighborhood, but I have to wonder if we're doing all we can to nurture them. In my mind, that is the proper role of humans when it comes to the places where we live. We should be doing all we can to shape our human habitats to be in harmony with the natural world.

Anyway, I say all that as a lead in to this blog piece, which is about a group in Seattle called Pollinator Pathways.  It's a  gathering of like-minded citizens in a residential neighborhood a half mile or so East of Downtown Seattle.  In 2008, in response to the increasing concern about bee hives being decimated by what is now called, 'Colony Collapse Disorder'  a group of neighbors came up with a plan to create an urban strip with plantings designed to encourage a healthy symbiosis with native bees and other pollinators. The group attracted a lot of support from the city government, local universities, and their neighbors.  They created a formal structure for their effort and called it Pollinator Pathways

I read about the Pollinator Pathway program and thought to myself, 'That's exactly what we need in my neighborhood.' 

I called our Home Owner's Association and asked if something like that might be encouraged in our Portland neighborhood. Their initial response was encouraging, so I'm going to talk to the good people behind Pollinator Pathways in Seattle, and see what I can learn about adopting their program here in Portland. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, for more blog pieces on this subject, click on the labels below for 'Bees' and 'Pollinators'