Spotlight on a Pollinator Partner

We would like to spotlight people who are making exceptional pollinator protection work happen across North America and beyond. These pollinator partners have gone above and beyond in incorporating pollinator protection into all that they do. The birds, bats, bees and beetles thank you!

Bill Hilton Jr., Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History

As a life-long educator-naturalist, Bill does all he can in his professional and personal life to teach others to appreciate the natural wonders of the planet we share. By empowering students of all ages with knowledge about the natural world, he encourages protection of the plants, animals, and habitats over which humans have dominion. Bill takes special delight in helping folks discover intricate relationships in nature, and inherent in this is his fascination with plants and their pollinators.

As executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, SC, Bill frequently leads Guided Field Trips around the property. During floral seasons, he is always quick to point out native blossoms and the various pollinators that visit them. One of his favorite challenges in autumn is for each student in a K-12 class to pick a Goldenrod plant and watch it for just 15 minutes, writing down or sketching all the various insects that come to the flower head in search of nectar and pollen; then he gives each of the students a hand lens and asks what else they can find! Even a once-disinterested child is fascinated by the diverse relationships between the Goldenrod and its myriad pollinators.

Bill has captured images of many Goldenrod pollinators with the macro lens of his camera. When he gives public programs, he often shares these photos, pointing out the importance of pollinators to audience members who were not lucky enough to personally sit in his Goldenrod patch at Hilton Pond. And all of his lectures about hummingbirds-one of his primary research topics- include photos of and references to the value of these tiny birds as pollinators of native plants such as Trumpet Creeper, Wild Columbine, and Jewelweed. Even experienced backyard gardeners are sometimes surprised to hear how many native and ornamental plants are pollinated primarily by hummingbirds. Learn more about "Operation Ruby Throat: The Hummingbird Project."

Bill also sends the pollinator message out to a much broader audience through his unique series of photo essays published on the Center's Web site under "This Week at Hilton Pond." Each week he posts an original installment about some interesting plant, animal, or natural phenomenon he observes and photographs at the Center. If the essay is about a native forb, shrub, vine, or tree there is almost always a reference to how the plant is pollinated. Recently, for example, he explained how he discovered Anglepod (a type of viny milkweed) is pollinated by tiny flies rather than bees or wasps-not surprising when we learn through his elegant, descriptive prose that the Anglepod's flowers stink faintly like rotten meat!

By way of illustrating Bill's enthusiasm for getting out the message about pollinators, read the "This Week at Hilton Pond" photo essay below. After reading this delightful and beautifully illustrated essay we think you'll understand why Bill Hilton Jr. deserves a Pollinator Spotlight!

From This Week at Hilton Pond (2003): "The Importance of Pollinators"

(nomination by Dr. James Shuman, Chair, Department of Education, St.Lawrence University, Canton NY)