Categories
Hive Mind Uncategorized

Connect to Protect. A Partner update!

Our proud partners at Connect to Protect have been working hard in Macon! Today we are showcasing their commitment to native pollinators  with a project update from Jennifer Ceska, Conservation Coordinator at the State Botanic Garden of Georgia. Connect to Protect is a program piloted by the Garden to connect the dots for wildlife by providing food, shelter, and breeding locations across Georgia. This includes building habitat for native pollinators! For a video documenting their recent efforts click here

– GAPP TEAM

PARTNER UPDATE- Connect to Protect Goes to Macon! 

Written by:  Jennifer Ceska, Conservation Coordinator, SBG-Athens,

What an amazing series of connected dots! This project, providing native plants to gardens and schools, launched in Athens a couple of years ago. The goal is to help all incorporate natives into every garden, from patio pots to mailbox gardens, to pocket prairies in urban yards. We help to provide Georgia sourced seeds of these natives, select plants that are pretty for gardens and also support pollinators in all of their life stages, through all seasons. We donate plants to schools and sell them to others as well.

 And then we get a call from our State Botanical Garden of Georgia Chairman of the Board, Stephen Reichart, and his brother, the Mayor of Macon, Robert Reichard, saying they would like to create several Connect to Protect native plant gardens in Macon. About six months later, the plants are in the ground, being planted by a team of partners from Macon-Bibb Parks and Recreation and the State Botanical Garden. The response from this garden planting has been tremendous, with inquiries from all around the state with folks looking for ways to participate. We have been linking people with recommended species and native plant nurseries when they are far from Athens. We see Connect to Protect as a statewide program, and we recommend plants appropriate for each physiographic province in Georgia.

Connect to Protect connects the dots for wildlife by providing food, shelter, breeding locations for Georgia wildlife. Specifically, insect pollinators, most of whom require native plants to complete their life cycles and songbirds who feed their nestlings insects found on these Georgia native plants. Each Connect to Protect garden also incorporates Asclepias species, for supporting migrating Monarchs. You too can Connect to Protect. Contact the State Botanical Garden of Georgia for information, http://botgarden.uga.edu/.

 Connect to Protect is a proud partner of the Greater Atlanta Pollinator Partnership. Connect to Protect is a program piloted by the State Botanical Garden of Georgia meeting our mission of UGA’s Public Service and Outreach.