Biodiversity Conservation: Enhancing Pollinator Habitat

The Urban Prairies Project (UPP) is a collaborative partnership that engages local communities to improve the quality, quantity, and connectivity of pollinator habitat on public open spaces. During the 2023-2024 project season, UPP will engage over 150 volunteers to plant native species including milkweed, reseed restoration areas, remove noxious weeds, and collect native plant seed for propagation on public lands in the Denver metro area, impacting over 150 different pollinator species across more than 3,000 acres. 

UPP will offer several public outreach events—including three seasonal BioBlitz events—that will raise awareness about pollinators, help families connect with nature, and be inspired to become environmental stewards. UPP will also be installing three demonstration gardens that will become learning spaces where guests can discover how to increase habitat at home and observe pollinators in action. 

Olmsted Parks Conservancy works to combat invasive species, human impact, encroachment, and other challenges that jeopardize vital habitats within the city, with a particular focus on historically disinvested neighborhoods.  

Funding from the 2023 Biodiversity Conservation Grant will enhance and preserve more than 1,000 habitat acres across the Louisville parks system, including Chickasaw Park, where volunteers will install a “Butterfly and Bee” pollinator meadow to honor the park’s most famous user: Muhammad Ali, who trained there in his youth. 

A network of specially trained park stewards, as well as hundreds of local students, corporate volunteers, and park neighbors, will host several community engagement activities, including guided hikes, educational tours, two BioBlitz events, and community science data collection with Kentucky State University and the University of Louisville. 

The San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust, Inc., protects and expands riparian habitats to create a wildlife corridor in California’s Central Valley. This project will augment funds for the River Parkway Trust’s larger-scale habitat enhancement projects to support understory plantings and seeding at closely connected San Joaquin River Parkway properties, where woody shrubs can provide protection and nectar sources for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators.  

The River Parkway Trust will hold at least three Parkway Pollinator Corridor Project volunteer workdays at each of the three largest and publicly accessible properties with habitat enhancement projects: Jensen River Ranch, Fresno River West, and Sycamore Island. The seeding and planting volunteer events will be held monthly in the fall and early winter of 2023 to align with the region’s optimal seeding and planting timeline. Each volunteer will receive a seed ball party favor to encourage the community to act independently to support pollinators in the Central Valley. 

The Catalina Island Conservancy maintains a healthy balance between protecting Catalina's unique environment and serving the needs of a diverse public—approximately 700,000 annual visitors from Los Angeles and greater Southern California, as well as the 4,000 permanent residents of the city of Avalon.

This grant project will allow for critically needed management of invasive plant species so that native pollinator species such as the Avalon Hairstreak butterfly, Catalina orange streak butterfly, cuckoo bee, and Allen’s hummingbird can not only survive, but thrive. In addition, the Conservancy will oversee several programs aimed at educating and engaging both children and adults about the island’s native pollinators and the work required to maintain their habitat.

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is home to an award-winning horticulture department which, in addition to maintaining the Zoo’s expansive botanical garden, also serves neighboring communities by revitalizing parks and playgrounds with landscaping and pollinator gardens. Their Plant for Pollinators program shares this expertise with community members while encouraging them to create their own pollinator habitats, with over 2,400 gardens registered since 2019.

Through this grant project, the Cincinnati Zoo will spearhead the installation of a sustainable pollinator garden in the Avondale community—in which the Zoo is located—along with active input from residents throughout the process. This garden will be the first in a series of six “pocket parks” that will create a habitat for pollinators as well as provide healthy environments for the local community, where approximately 44% of the population live on or below the poverty level. The Cincinnati Zoo hopes to use this project as a model for other zoos and environmental organizations seeking to promote similar coexistence-themed conservation strategies in urban spaces.