Thank you all for joining us for the most recent edition of the Prairie Rivers of Iowa Newsletter.  The Watersheds and Wildlife Program has been hard at work over the last few months making progress on several projects.  Some of the major work that we’ve done has been installing pollinator gardens in both Ames and Boone.

These gardens included 38 total plants from 14 species.  All plants that were included are native to Central Iowa and provide both food and shelter resources to pollinators.

Bee in Pollinator Garden

The Ames garden is located in Northridge Park, and the Boone garden is located in Cap Erbe Park.  I would like to thank Keith Abraham from the Ames Parks and Recreation Department, and April Burch from the Boone Parks Commission for all of their help.  Moving forward, we will be designing and installing informational panels that explain the benefits of these gardens.

This time of year also marks the beginning of a new initiative from the Watersheds and Wildlife Program, which is pollinator species monitoring.  Over June, July, August, and September, we will be visiting public lands in Story County, and conducting surveys on pollinators and nectar plants.  This will give us the opportunity to be able to track what species are on the landscape in real-time, while also being able to announce any findings of rare, threatened, or endangered species as we see them.  If you see me out in a Story County park with a net and binoculars, feel free to stop and say hi!

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