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| Part of the USFWS booth included a flower dissection station! Credit: Meghan Kearney/USFWS |
Probably most of you. And for those who don’t, this post
also applies to apples, strawberries, coffee, kiwi, broccoli and just about
every type of fruit, vegetable or flower that you yourself might have in your
garden. All of these items have one very important thing in common with one
another, and this past weekend I not only got to learn about this for myself, I
also shared these fun but important facts with attendees at the Wallowa
Resources Watershed Festival in Enterprise, Oregon.
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| After dissecting flowers guests got to share in some pollinated food! Credit: Meghan Kearney/USFWS |
As part of my role with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s
Connecting People with Nature team, I’m looking for unique ways to show the
importance of nature in our everyday lives, and what better way to do this than
through delicious, sweet chocolate! By now you are probably wondering what
chocolate has to do with nature. The answer comes down to one simple skill
practiced by many of our wildlife friends – pollination! All of those yummy
treats that I listed above depend on pollinators like bees, butterflies and even
bats to reproduce. (Read
more about the process of pollination and chocolate!).Without these
important species, we might never experience the joy of chocolate consumption
(or broccoli of course)!
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| Learning the different parts of a flower, and the process of pollination. Credit: Meghan Kearney/USFWS |
In celebration of National Pollinator Week, U.S. Fish &
Wildlife themed our booth at this year’s Watershed Festival around pollinators
through three themes: pollinators, pollination, and pollinated food! We spent
the day teaching kids, adults and grandparents alike how to dissect a flower,
and how to count seeds in an apple to determine if it’s been fully pollinated
(it has to have ten seeds!). Finally, after explaining the process of
pollination of the chocolate flower, we handed out chocolates donated by local Arrowhead Chocolates. Experiencing
nature through flowers, apples and chocolate was nothing short of a hit!
Helping Pollinators at
Home
Now that you know a bit more about the importance of
pollinators in your everyday life, make sure to get outside and lend a helping
hand to the little creatures you find flying around your plants! Without them,
we could suffer more than just a day without chocolate! Also, if you have any
stories to share about pollinators in your garden, tips for keeping them
around, or even want to name some more plants that depend on pollinators, leave
some comments!
Watch "The Beauty of Pollination"
More great resources on pollinators, and what you can do to
be involved in their conservation in your own backyard/community
garden/balcony!
“Pick the Pollinator” – interactive game from PBS!
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