AdkAction’s Adirondack Pollinator Project is pleased to announce the annual celebration of Pollinator Week, June 21-27, recognizing the invaluable role pollinators play in supporting biodiversity, food availability, and the economy.

An estimated one third of all foods and beverages is dependent on pollinators. In New York State alone, $350 million per year is accrued in services provided by bees and other pollinators. The work of pollinators ensures full harvests of crops and contributes to healthy plants everywhere. Vital pollinator populations are declining due to pesticide use, disease and parasite problems, and loss of food and nesting habitat.

The Adirondack Pollinator Project works in partnership with The Wild Center, The Lake Placid Land Conservancy, and Paul Smith’s College to ensure a future where our pollinators thrive. Here’s how you can get involved locally during Pollinator Week:

Visit the vibrant Butterfly House as well as the surrounding pollinator-friendly native vegetation at Paul Smith’s VIC. Admission is free and it’s open 10:00 am – 4:00 pm daily, weather permitting, from June 19th through Labor Day. Visitors can enjoy observing butterflies and moths in all stages of development and learn about the different species from VIC naturalists.

Stop by the AdkAction tent at the Lake Placid farmers market on Wednesday the 23rd or the Saranac Lake farmers market on Saturday the 26th to learn about pollinator garden installations happening around the Adirondacks, and ways you can create pollinator habitat in your own backyard. AdkAction’s pollinator intern will be giving out free wildflower seed packets, and will paint bees and butterflies on children’s hands or arms. Kids can also borrow a set of bee or butterfly wings to sport while shopping at the market!

Families can also get involved in planting one of the Adirondack Pollinator Project’s community gardens the afternoon of Friday, June 25th at Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh. Kids can lend a hand and plant pollinator-friendly wildflowers in the garden, and then take home a seed packet to start their very own! Everyone leaves with a PBS KIDS activity bag and book to keep the fun and learning going at home. The event is free for the whole family, but registration is limited. Learn more and sign up to participate here.

Visit The Wild Center to increase your awareness, knowledge and understanding of pollinators and their habitat here in the Adirondacks. A longstanding partner of the Adirondack Pollinator Project, The Wild Center is committed to connecting people and nature through exhibits, campus, and programs. During Pollinator Week and all summer long, visitors to The Wild Center can stroll through pollinator gardens, wildflower meadows and Monarch Way Station, check out outdoor honey bee hives – and perhaps catch a glimpse of the curator tending the hives – or visit an indoor education hive and new pollinator exhibits.

To continue pollinator-related events beyond Pollinator Week, the Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC) will be hosting an all-ages workshop focusing on habitat and pollinator identification in July. The Pollinator Workshop will be held on July 15th from 11am-12pm at John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid in partnership with John Brown Lives! and will feature a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a citizen science training, and suggestions for successful pollinator plantings.

Visit www.adkaction.org/pollinators to learn more about more actions you can take to promote pollinator habitat in the Adirondacks.

Photo provided by AdkAction