Mayo Beach Park: Pollinator Plots

Mayo Beach Park: Pollinator Plots

Mayo Beach Park is predominantly a swimming beach. But back before the county owned the land, it was a hopping private recreational swimming area, with baseball fields, a large playground, concession stands, and areas to grill a delicious meal. When Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks purchased the land, the vision changed and the ball fields became simply mowed fields that were, maybe occasionally, used for overflow parking. In an effort to add habitat and reduce the amount of mowing, AACO Recreation and Park Superintendent Karen Jarboe, decided to turn the field into pollinator plots that would serve as spaces for environmental education, interpretation opportunities for rangers, and beautiful spaces for beach goers to connect with nature beyond the beach.

The project was initially coordinated through a grant for Anne Arundel County’s Green Infrastructure. Jonas Lai, who was the green infrastructure liaison, and Superintendent Jarboe worked together to create a vision for the space. He then partnered with Lauren Toomey of RePollinate Anne Arundel and the USGS Native Bee Lab who shared their unique planting methods, which were utilized on site. This included creating a perimeter of mulch to plant mature plants, leaving the inside of the plot to be tilled and seeded with a native pollinator mix. The idea is that the mature plants will disseminate their seeds into the interior of the plot, naturally creating more diversity as the plots mature.

The project has been overwhelmingly successful and needs little maintenance from year to year. There are more plots to be created. The park will maintain the same methods; however, volunteers from other organizations such as the Arundel River Federation, Scouts of America, and the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps have and will continue to donate plants, materials, and people hours.