Pollinator Week 2022

Pollinator Week 2022

Last week was pollinator week, and there were two successful events to celebrate at Peace Memorial Park in the Lloyd. We had the pleasure of welcoming and working with a dozen volunteers from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). These volunteers spent the day picking up trash around the park, removing graffiti, repainting walls, mowing the lawn of the park, and removing invasive plants. Due to COVID, we know many people have only recently returned to working in their offices so it was great to see employees eagerly come out to improve the park and the neighborhood. 

We were particularly excited to partner with BPA during Pollinator Week, as they have a long and strong commitment to pollinator protection. For instance, last Spring marked the completion of the landscaping portion of the Fleet Services Building project. This project revolved around a multi-tasking landscape plan that included planting 40 native herbaceous plant species for the new development. These new native plants help minimize landscape maintenance and costs by preventing the need for watering, mowing and fertilizing, and provide a habitat for native pollinators. 

Additionally, BPA supports the use of the “Bee Better Certified Seal” for electric power companies! Historically, the Bee Better Certification has appeared on certain food products grown by farmers who are dedicated to pollinator conservation and biodiversity. The primary goals of the Bee Better Certification for electric power companies is to advance a credible, effective, measurable, voluntary and achievable level of pollinator conservation actions. Additionally they hope to apply the best available science to ensure that pollinator conservation is well defined and measured by a set of mutually agreed upon criteria that can be objectively applied to projects.

Later in the week, volunteers from East Portland Rotary Club organized their own event to continue pulling invasive and out of control plants from the Peace symbol. They braved Portland’s heat wave to do this work – so thank you to all who came out!