Greater Sudbury Buzzing About Pollinator Week

June 21 to 27 is Pollinator Week, an annual event celebrated internationally to recognize the importance of pollinators to healthy people and a healthy environment. This morning, Mayor Brian Bigger proclaimed the week and joined members of the Sudbury Community Garden Network to do a planting in the new pollinator garden at Tom Davies Square.

“Pollinators like birds, bees, bats and butterflies provide one out of every three bites of food that we eat. They are critical to the health of our ecosystem and the sustainability of our food supply – but many of their populations are in decline because of our climate emergency,” said Mayor Bigger. “There are simple ways for all of us to help our pollinator populations, from supporting local farmers to planting pollinator-friendly trees and flowers in our gardens to getting involved with the Greater Sudbury Pollinator Project.”

The Greater Sudbury Pollinator Project is an initiative led by the Sudbury Community Garden Network, Sudbury Shared Harvest, and three residents who have been recognized as David Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway Rangers. The project is bringing together a number of community partners to plant pollinator gardens on public and private land across the city.

“Thank you to the City of Greater Sudbury for supporting celebrating pollinators and spreading the word about what we can do to protect them,” said Rachelle Niemela, Chair of the Sudbury Community Garden Network. “Pollinators are critical to food security and to healthy ecosystems. Conservation techniques that include natural habitats like this garden at Tom Davies Square demonstrate that together, we can make a difference.”

To learn more about the Greater Sudbury Pollinator Project, visit sudburycommunitygardens.ca/pollinators. For more tips and resources on how you can help support pollinator populations, visit the Pollinator Partnership website at www.pollinator.org.

The Greater Sudbury Pollinator Project also supports the target of making Greater Sudbury a net-zero community by 2050. Greater Sudbury is acting on the climate emergency through the Community Energy and Emissions Plan and we all have a role to play. To learn more, visit www.greatersudbury.ca/netzero.