About Paw Path Pollinator Garden
The Martinsville Garden Club and the Garden Study Club filled these gardens with native plants. Birds, bees, butterflies, moths and insects thrive on native plants. These creatures collect nectar and pollen. Some pollen falls from their bodies as they move from plant to plant. They pollinate plants that give us life.
Pollinator Power
Ruby-red tomatoes, juicy blueberries, crunchy cashews, freshly baked bread, rich chocolate, even coffee-
pollinators pollinate three-quarters or more of our crops and flowering plants.
Thank you, pollinators.
Imperiled Pollinators
Pollinators are in trouble. Habitat loss, misuse of chemicals, disease and other threats have caused their numbers to dwindle. The U.S. has lost more than half of its managed honeybee colonies.
Some pollinator species have been listed as “endangered,” and face possible extinction.
Protecting Pollinators
We have things we need. So do pollinators. One way to protect
pollinators is to make their habitat sustaining. Pollinators need native plants. So the Paw Path Pollinator Garden is filled with native plants. We can also create nesting habitats, such as the insect “hotels” on the Smith River Paw Path. We can stop or limit use of pesticides. For more
information, visit www.fws.gov/pollinators/PollinatorPages/YourHelp.html#bee
Protecting Together
The Paw Path Pollinator Garden exists thanks to many humans who care. The Martinsville Garden Club and the Garden Study Club - members of the Garden Club of Virginia - received help from the Jones family, the
Dan River Basin Association, Kathy Fell, Master Naturalists, Girl Scouts, Magna Vista High School, and Eagle Scout Jackson Gardner, candidate Logan Peters and fellow Scouts. Special thanks to schools, teachers and students as pollinator protectors.
Pollinator Resources
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Natural Resources
Conservation Service, Xerces Society, National Wildlife Federation, U.S. Park Service, U.S. Forest Service