Fish Like a GIRL

By now, most readers know how I feel about pollinators. The cute little bugs and bees and butterflies that make most of our food possible are kind of fun to watch, besides providing us with food. But at this time of the year, we do not tend to think about them a lot. We have a lot going on — Christmas, New Year’s Eve parties, shoveling…. I did not say it was all fun. We also have time to plan our summer outdoor spaces.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have already received four seed catalogs for spring of 2024. I have resisted the urge to browse through them so far. I am waiting for the first big snowstorm of the year (I mean really big) so I can grab a cup of Earl Grey tea and just sit on the couch planning my gardens and figuring what else I can do to attract pollinators to this once invasive species-infested and otherwise barren yard.

I have done well so far, but I know there is much more I can do.

The other day I got an email from the Monarch Joint Venture. Between that organization and the Pollinator Partnership, a person can find out just about anything they might want to know about pollinators. As an aside, registration is now open for the 2024 Pollinator Stewardship certification course. I would highly recommend it. I became certified last year and the course is packed with information, plus I got to interact with everyone else in the course from all over North America. 

There are two parts to the certification. 

In Part I, participants send in responses to what they learned in each lesson. In Part II, participants send in photos of the work they are doing or have done and whether they are working on habitat projects or doing outreach and communication. I had projects in both areas and sent in photographs of the home-school kids at the local STEM learning facility completing a craft project in our pollinator session as well as photographs of the native plantings I have completed thus far in the yard of our new home.

There are other learning opportunities as well, for those interested in pollinators, permaculture, hugelkultur or any other plantings or property improvements they might want to make. One of those is a series of webinars from the Monarch Joint Venture. The last of those for 2023 will take place on December 19 and is entitled Monarch Conservation: Past, Present, and Future. The cool thing, though, is anyone can go back to watch any of the other webinars the Joint Venture has put out. There were 10 others just this year that are on the website and ready for viewing. 

Looking to plan small-scale native pollinator habitat? The March webinar addressed just that. November’s presentation was on climate change impacts. July looked at pollinator-friendly ground cover for solar sites, something I have heard a lot of discussion about lately as different factions look for other avenues for power and whatnot. 

The Monarch Joint Venture also offers a Complete Monarch Essentials class, although that class is not free. It is a seven-hour self-paced online course that might be worth checking out for those interested.

The Pollinator Partnership website is also full of resources for those planning their gardening adventures next season. They even have a downloadable Ecoregional Planting Guide for people who are unsure of what they might want to plant.

Honestly, there are so many resources out there, and YouTube is a great place to find them. I used to find myself going down a rabbit hole of research all the time on Wikipedia. YouTube has the same “dangers,” so I recommend grabbing a big cup of tea before clicking over there or firing up the tablet. Simply enter any subject: pollinators, permaculture, hugelkultur, foraging — whatever a person might be interested in at any given time, there will be dozens (if not more) channels to follow. 

Now, a word of caution here. A while back I happened upon an “off the grid” channel, which I will not name here, and it had a lot of great content… or so I thought. I went back to that channel today as I was thinking about writing this column, because it seemed like they had some really good tips and tricks. Well, needless to say, they have gone completely off the rails and are now apparently into conspiracy theory heaven. So, as I said, YouTube is a great place to find information, but also realize it is still the internet, so some caution should be exercised. 

I have to also mention there are some great local channels on there, such as Trout Lake Station’s channel, where all of the Science on Tap productions are housed.

For foraging, the guy from Learn Your Land sometimes seems a little “out there,” but he, too, has a lot of great information. Just as with finding our “favorite” shows on TV, it can take some searching for people we want to learn from online, but with so many options out there, I would say there is a good chance to find great content on any subject. I even just found one on mountain bike tricks. At my age, I will never attempt these tricks but it is fun to watch other people defy gravity.

If readers have a favorite outdoor or gardening related channel they think I should check out, I would be happy to hear about it! Until then, check out the Monarch Joint Venture at pollinator.org or the Monarch Joint Venture at monarchjointventure.org to enjoy some of their great offerings.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].