The future site of the pollinator demo garden near Bathtub Row. Courtesy/PEEC
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
If looking for a key to biodiversity, a healthy ecosystem, then look no further than the small, typically golden yellow and black stripped winged creature, known as the bee.
According to Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) Director of Programs Kristen O’Hara, bees are important for a couple of reasons.
“Helping our local bees, and other pollinators, supports other animals in our ecosystem because pollinating insects are a food source,” she said.
“We wouldn’t have the biodiversity we have without pollinators (and) native bees pollinate approximately 80 percent of flowering plants,” O’Hara said.
Unfortunately, this key to an enriched and healthy environment is in peril; O’Hara pointed out that bee populations have significantly declined globally so it is important for communities to help grow their numbers.
“Pollinators, including native bees, are super important to ecosystem health and human health,” she said.
Locally, the effort to aid the bees has included Los Alamos becoming certified in the Bee City USA program.
As a result, Los Alamos County and the Bee City USA committee collaborated to designate a plot of land, located to one side of the Betty Ehart Senior Center, behind the New Mexico State University extension office, as a pollinator demo garden.
Planting season is still a while off but to prepare the lot, a work party is scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and the public is invited to help clear debris and level dirt. Some tools will be available for use, but volunteers are encouraged to bring their own including gloves and trowels. Snacks will also be available.
O’Hara explained the plot is being divided into sections and Saturday’s work party will focus on the middle section.
“Our goal is to prep the space and then do plantings in the middle of May,” she said.
O’Hara said the section that will be prepped during the volunteer event will be a larger section of the plot, which will include shrubs and a meadow-style low maintenance wildflower area.
Another section will showcase fire safe plantings and “showy” native plants and the shadier section will feature more shade-friendly plants.
The hope is to use plants native to north-central New Mexico throughout the demo garden, O’Hara said.
Being a part of Bee City is beneficial to the garden, she said that the Bee City committee received a grant that is helping to buy plants from nurseries in north/central New Mexico. Hopefully, this garden will inspire people to do the same in their own garden, O’Hara said.
“The demo garden is just offering examples of what people can do in their yards,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be something really complicated. The point of a demo garden is to give access to ideas … the types of plants that can grow and flourish in Los Alamos.”
O’Hara said this project is the first official pollinator space designated as part of the Bee City initiative in Los Alamos which PEEC and the County are actively involved in.
“It is also really significant to see the County’s buy-in … (by designating) several open spaces throughout the community,” she said.
County Parks Superintendent Wendy Parker agreed.
“The Community Services Department, Parks Division is collaborating with PEEC and Bee City USA to create a pollinator area with native plants, which provide a good source of nectar and pollen, are low maintenance and drought tolerant,” she said. “This partnership will provide an area for residents to learn about the importance of pollinators for bees, butterflies, birds, and other animals.”
Pre-registration for the work party can be done at https://www.volunteerlosalamos.org/need/detail/?need_id=921322.
For more information, contact O’Hara at kristen@peecnature.org or call PEEC at 505.662.0460.