Planting for Pollinators
Today is Earth Day, and if you are reading this, I invite you to take a moment in gratitude for Mother Earth and all the abundance she provides. Without her, we could not live or sustain life. She gives us the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water necessary for our survival.
Our pollinators are also essential to our health and well-being because they help provide the very food we eat. Bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, beetles, wasps, bats, and other pollinators play a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and supporting food production. Without them, much of our plant life—and much of our food supply—would struggle to survive.
Unfortunately, pollinator populations are declining at an alarming rate.
One of the biggest contributors is habitat loss. As our human population grows, more land is cleared for housing, roads, and development. Natural spaces where pollinators once lived, nested, and fed are fragmented or destroyed altogether.
The introduction of non-native plants also creates challenges. In many areas, invasive species outcompete native plants that local pollinators rely on. Where I live in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Himalayan blackberry is a perfect example. While many people enjoy picking the berries, it is not native here. It spreads aggressively, taking over shorelines and wild spaces, pushing out native plants and reducing biodiversity.
Industrial agriculture also plays a major role. Large areas of diverse natural habitat are replaced with monoculture farming—growing only one type of crop across vast spaces. Pollinators need a variety of native plants blooming throughout the seasons, not just one crop for a short period of time. When we remove biodiversity, we remove food sources.
Many large-scale farms also rely heavily on pesticides and herbicides, which are harmful to pollinators and poison our soil, waterways, and ecosystems.
Even our obsession with the perfect green lawn contributes to the problem. Many people spend time and money trying to eliminate dandelions and “weeds,” often using products like Roundup, which contains glyphosate. These chemicals not only harm pollinators visiting early spring flowers like dandelions, but they also contaminate the land and water we depend on.
Climate change is another major factor. More extreme weather events—floods, droughts, heat waves, and unseasonable temperature shifts—disrupt pollinator life cycles. In the Lower Mainland, we experienced an unusually mild winter, causing some plants to bloom earlier than usual. When flowers bloom too early and pollinators are not yet active, it can impact feeding patterns and larval survival.
Pollinators also face challenges from parasites, disease, and pathogens, especially when human intervention and commercial breeding increase stress on already fragile populations.
Now that I’ve given you all the doom and gloom, let’s talk about what we can do.
The good news is that helping pollinators does not require perfection—small actions matter.
This year, I became a Butterfly Ranger through the David Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway Project, a citizen-led movement creating pollinator pathways across communities. My commitment is to help increase pollinator habitats and gardens in my local neighbourhood.
If each of us created even a small habitat garden—on a patio, balcony, front yard, or windowsill—we could make a real difference. Pollinators do not need perfection. They need food, shelter, and safe places to land.
You can help by:
• Planting native flowers that bloom across different seasons
• Leaving dandelions and clover for early spring food sources
• Avoiding pesticides, herbicides, and chemical lawn treatments
• Creating container gardens on patios and balconies
• Adding planter boxes with pollinator-friendly herbs like lavender, thyme, and sage
• Leaving a small wild area in your yard instead of manicuring every inch
• Providing shallow water sources with stones for bees and butterflies to land on
• Supporting local farmers and growers who use regenerative and pollinator-safe practices
• Learning which native plants support pollinators in your specific region
Even a small cluster of native plants can make a meaningful difference. If a few people in one building commit to doing the same, suddenly an entire pollinator pathway begins to form.
This is how change happens—not always in massive global movements, but in small acts of stewardship repeated over and over again.
If you live in the Vancouver area and would like to join my Butterflyway group, please reach out to me at info@adawnrising.com. I have seeds to share, and together we can support one another as we learn to garden for our pollinator friends.
Together, we can create a Butterflyway.
Because caring for pollinators is really about something bigger—it is about remembering that our wellness is inseparable from the wellness of the land.
All my relations.
This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.
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