Come celebrate the beauty of spring in Shoreline! Buzz on over to the forest Saturday, May 31st, from 3 to 5pm to play, learn, sing, dance and create with us. The Miyawaki Forest Project welcomes you to a FREE kid and family-friendly party where you can learn about the pollinators behind all the spring color around us. You’ll enjoy live music and refreshments, watch your kids entertained by beloved children’s performer Eric Ode, and participate in fun, hands-on games and crafts.
You and your family will learn about the helpful bugs, butterflies, bees, bats and birds from pollinator experts who will be on hand to answer your questions. And just for fun, kids can come dressed as their favorite pollinators – a great way to make use of those bat capes, antennae headbands and butterfly wings waiting around at home in your kids’ closets. Don’t have those? We’ll have materials for pollinator mask-making once you arrive. And if you’re in the mood, feel free to spread out your picnic blanket for rest and refreshments; even bring dinner if you like!
Why pollinators? Our modest little pollinator hill on the museum grounds was planted to encourage the health of the fast-growing forest just 50 feet away. Roughly 70% of the plants in our Miyawaki forest must be pollinated in order to grow and develop. This is the same percentage as of all the plants on Earth which depend on pollinators, including the plants that make up the human food supply. Bees, butterflies and a plethora of other insects, bats, birds and even small mammals do the important job of transferring pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing in order to bring blossoms to fruit, fruit to seed, seed to new plants. These symbiotic relationships between pollinators and plants are essential to the life on which we all depend.
Threats to these busy creatures are increasing with increased climate change, habitat loss, agricultural practices, and pollution. According to the largest, most comprehensive assessment of pollinator extinction risk in mainland North America to date, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) recently found that more than one-fifth of native pollinators in North America are at an elevated risk of extinction. They evaluated nearly 1,600 species—including bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, flower flies, bats, and hummingbirds. Some of their key findings are:
22.6% of assessed species face elevated extinction risk, underscoring an urgent need for conservation.
Bees are most threatened: 34.7% of assessed native bee species are at risk, particularly leafcutter and digger bees.
Bats vs. hummingbirds: All three pollinating bat species are at risk, while all hummingbirds were found to be at low extinction risk.
As is true of so much in our world right now, it’s tempting to think there’s nothing we can do. The truth is, starting small, individuals coming together to solve a problem, is the only way to begin to set things right. We and PNAS recommend you support pollinator-friendly practices such as reducing pesticide use, planting native flowers, and creating habitats that provide food and shelter for pollinators year-round. We’ll help get you started by sending you home with action-oriented freebies like seed bombs, and handouts to guide efforts in your own yard. We at the Miyawaki Forest Project strongly recommend you come spend a fun Saturday afternoon with us and learn more!
Look What's Growing!
Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project
You can learn more about other projects like this from Natural Urban Forest.
