Iowa Sierra Club members--Join the effort to protect pollinators!

Iowa's Blank Park Zoo and several other organizations are encouraging the planting of butterfly gardens in the state of Iowa during National Pollinator Week (June 15-21).  Along with the Zoo’s Plant.Grow.Fly initiative, this effort will raise awareness about the critical issue of declining pollinator populations and to call for action to help save these vital species like the monarch butterfly. More than 1/3 of our global food supply depends on pollinators, and honey bees alone add more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year in the United States.

Sierra Club has joined this pollinator conservation program and we are encouraging our members across the state to plant a garden that attracts and supports these important pollinators.  If you already have a pollinator-friendly garden or plant a new pollinator garden, please register your garden at www.plantgrowfly.com . Then let us know by emailing [log in to unmask] .

You can help by:

                o  planting a variety of native plants in your yards and gardens (ideas at www.plantgrowfly.com)                          

                o  reducing the use of pesticides on your lawn

                o  consider planting an organic lawn, that does not use artificial fertilizers and pesticides

                o  purchasing organically-grown foods, that are produced without the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers

                o Planting milkweed seeds and raising milkweed in your garden.  There are many varieties of milkweed native to Iowa and the common milkweed is a favorite of the monarchs.

From Jane Clark and Pam Mackey-Taylor