[Pollinator] Casper Star Tribune - Pollinating Wyoming - great story

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Pollinating Wyoming
By HANNAH WIEST
Star-Tribune staff writer Friday, May 25, 2007         
 
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It looked like a bright yellow seed.

Or maybe fertilizer for the Bee Balm plant she had just tucked into the 
ground.

Thinking the yellow thing was important for her plant's growth, Shaina Sipp 
picked it up.

Then she shrieked.

It had legs. Eight wiggly ones. Sipp flicked the odd spider from her finger, 
and a boy from her class picked it up. It was way too cool.

Eventually, Sipp shook away her willies and the 40 fifth-graders from Oregon 
Trail Elementary school got back to the task at hand: planting three butterfly 
gardens at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center.

The U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have designated June 
24 through 30 as National Pollinator Week. Since school is out at that time, 
Oregon Trail Elementary and the Bureau of Land Management celebrated early by 
planting flowers that will attract monarch butterflies.

"This will attract monarchs when they migrate north," said 10-year-old Anna 
O'Malley. "Right now they don't stop, so we're planting flowers to help them, 
and they can help the flowers."   

Classmate Felicia Midkiff poked her shovel into the ground. It was too hard. 
She stomped. Then she jumped. She piled dirt on Brittney Street's shoe. 
Finally, though, Midkiff, O'Malley and Street had their purple coneflower safely 
planted.

"It makes Casper more green and bright, which is good because Casper is kind 
of brown," O'Malley said.

The butterfly gardens are part of the Bureau of Land Management's "Hands on 
the Land" program, a nationwide endeavor to partner federal agencies with 
schools and get kids outside where they can receive environmental education, said 
Gayle Irwin, an information specialist at the trails center.

Irwin was grateful for the students' help in making the center a fragrant and 
attractive waystation for monarchs.

"I'm hoping this project will bring out parents and visitors to experience 
what the children have done here," Irwin said.

Oregon Trail teachers Janet Wragge and Paula Sorensen had their classes 
outside all day Thursday as part of the program.

Before digging in the dirt, the students picked up litter and studied flowers 
and trees planted at Bessemer Bend two years ago by "Hands on the Land" 
students.

"Any time you can get kids outside, away from the television and video games, 
it makes me excited," Wragge said. "They discover they like it, too."

Mattni Becker learned how to describe flowers, leaves, petals and stems and 
draw pictures of plant parts. She learned that the veins in leaves help 
transplant food and water to the plant.

"I like how you're making something grow, making it beautiful," she said. "I 
want the butterflies to come to Casper and make it pretty." Becker plans on 
bringing her parents to the trails center to show off her work.

Hopefully by then monarchs will be fluttering around, pollinating the flowers 
and gaining the strength they need to continue their migration.

According to the Pollinator Partnership's Web site, birds, bees, butterflies 
and other pollinating insects are vital to the world's ecosystem. Nearly 80 
percent of the world's crops need pollination to produce the one out of every 
three mouthfuls of food, spices and beverages humans eat and drink, not to 
mention the fibers, oils and medicines produced from pollinated plants. Pollution 
and pesticides harm pollinators, the Web site said, so it's important to 
provide for and protect them.

Bryghton Banovich can't wait for the flowers to grow, especially the 
milkweed, because the butterflies will lay their eggs on it and monarchs will grow up 
to pollinate Wyoming.

And make it beautiful.

"When we got here I wondered how we were going to fix this place," said 
student Sarah Cameron as she got ready to board the bright yellow bus and head back 
to Oregon Trail Elementary. "Then I looked again, and in the blink of an eye 
it was just beautiful and alive."
 
Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
_http://www.coevolution.org/_ (http://www.coevolution.org/) 
_http://www.pollinator.org/_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_http://www.nappc.org/_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.



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