Partners of Wayne National Forest receive funding for Butterfly Garden projects

Athens County Master Gardeners received a grant to create a pollinator learning laboratory at West Elementary School. Students will plan, construct and maintain a pollinator garden on school grounds.

Wayne National Forest is happy to announce that its partners, West Elementary School and the Master Gardeners of Athens County, received a Project Learning Tree MonarchLIVE GreenWorks! Butterfly Garden grant. Forest Botanist, Cheryl Coon, worked with the Master Gardeners to write a grant application for the project. This was one of 17 Butterfly Garden grants awarded in the U.S. and the only one awarded in Ohio. Wayne National Forest will partner with the program by supplying local native plant seeds and seedlings for use in the Butterfly Gardens.

The "Creation to Migration" project will involve local elementary students in planning, creating and maintaining a pollinator garden at West Elementary School. Students will learn "hands-on" about soil nutrient cycles, plant growth, pollinators and ecosystem function during the project. Students will document their discoveries in their classroom journals. Athens County Master Gardener, Betsy Keyes, will work directly with the school to provide knowledge and assistance with the project.

Betsy also hopes to work with local home-schoolers to develop a pollinator garden in the current Children's Garden maintained by the Master Gardeners. This public children's garden has been used by local students to learn about composting, planting and raising flowers and vegetables that are then given to a local food bank. Adding a native plant pollinator garden will provide an opportunity for children to learn about pollinators, their needs and the problems they face today.

The Athens County Master Gardeners and Wayne National Forest hope that the "Creation to Migration" project will develop a local interest and local protocol that other classrooms and local organizations can use to create native pollinator gardens throughout southeast Ohio.