This pollinator garden was created in 2016 and is located at the far end of the parking lot from the brand-new visitor center at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. This garden educates ANWR visitors about how the varieties of plants and habitats in the refuge support different populations of pollinators, without whose work there would be no plants, fruits, vegetables, or berries to support both human life and wildlife.
In 2022 the garden has been cleared is in the process of being restored and redesigned after an unseasonably cold winter killed many of the plants. The day Blasterz visited, we saw several containers of pollinator friendly plants lined up to be planted, and many flags placed in the garden where new plants had just been planted. We look forward to coming back next year to see how the garden has grown.
The sign in the pollinator garden reads as follows:
Pollinators Keep Aransas Flowering
Hummingbirds, bees, beetles, butterflies, and flies help pollinate over 75 percent of our flowering plants and nearly 75 percent of our crops. The other 25 percent of plants are pollinated through a combination of self-pollination, human pollination by hand, or pollination by wind and water.
In recent years the population of pollinators, especially bees, has been declining due to increased pesticide use, loss of habitat, and parasites or disease. Places like art Aransas NWR, which restore and protect natural habitat, play an important part in preserving and protecting these crucial participants in the global food web.
Did you know?
The bats at Aransas NWR or insect-eaters, not pollinators. They eat hundreds of insects, including mosquitoes, and many can consume almost their body weight in insects every day. At dusk, you might see them swooping low to the ground, on the hunt for a meal.
[photo of a Mexican Free-Tailed Bat]"
The Monarch waystation which is installed in this garden is part of the global Monarch Watch waystation program: (
visit link)
"Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to mountains in central Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders yet it is threatened by habitat loss at overwintering grounds in Mexico and throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada.
MONARCH WAYSTATION HABITATS
Monarch Waystations are places that provide resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. Without milkweeds throughout their spring and summer breeding areas in North America, monarchs would not be able to produce the successive generations that culminate in the migration each fall. Similarly, without nectar from flowers these fall migratory monarch butterflies would be unable to make their long journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico. The need for host plants for larvae and energy sources for adults applies to all monarch and butterfly populations around the world."
The Monarch Waystation is located on the east side of the pollinator garden, and faces west where it will get the most sunlight. Blasters noticed milkweed plants in several different kinds of nectar plants ready to be planted. We look forward to coming back and seeing how this pollinator garden looks next year.