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Inspiring, Educating And Supporting Diverse Communities Working Together To Restore And Connect Habitat For Pollinators Photo By Karalyn Lamb What is a Pollinator Pathway? Public and private pesticide-free corridors of native plants that provide nutrition and habitat for pollinating insects and birds. Even the smallest green spaces, like flower boxes and curb strips, can be part of a pathway. Donate Be Part Of The Pollinator Pathway Rethink your lawn Plant natives Remove invasives Avoid pesticides Join Now Contact us to receive quarterly newsletter Add your Pollinator Pathway property to map Order Pollinator Pathway yard sign Find my town Join our May Webinar: The Whole Story: Caterpillars, Connections and Why Biodiversity Matters with Sam Jaffe May 14th starting at 6:30 pm EST Register HERE Click on the map image above to view the Google Map (the Map will load very slowly, please have patience.....) News and Views VIEW ALL jaymesoyak 4 days ago Native Willows: Don't Overlook this Beautiful Pollinator "Superfood" 19 Post not marked as liked jaymesoyak Apr 22 No Mow May: Lessons Learned, From the Xerces Society 67 1 like. Post not marked as liked 1 jaymesoyak Apr 15 Newsflash: The Warblers are Coming! 18 Post not marked as liked

< PPS Homepage Stamford Pollinator Pathway Archived News Fern Galperin ​ May 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ February 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin and Melanie Hollas ​ November 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ August 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin & Melanie Hollas ​ May 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ February 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ November 2022 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ April 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ January 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ October 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ July 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ April 2023 Newsletter Read... Melanie Hollas & Fern Galperin ​ January 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ October 2022 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ March 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ December 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin & Melanie Hollas ​ September 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin & Melanie Hollas ​ June 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ March 2023 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ December 2022 Newsletter Read...

Pollinator Pathway Stamford VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Would you like to help with our social media a few times a month? Join our steering committee? Sign up to work on future projects with us? Do you have other skills to offer? Get in touch! PollinatorPathwayStamford@gmail.com Welcome to Pollinator Pathway Stamford! We are helping to create a corridor of safe habitats for birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators that extends across our city and into other towns. Our goal is to make Stamford’s private, commercial and city spaces pesticide free and safe for pollinators. Pollinators have limits to the distances they can travel and due to urbanization and the increasing use of turf lawns and asphalt parking lots, pollinators face “food deserts”, leading to their decline. Adding native plants, trees and shrubs help pollinators because they have co-evolved together. At least 35% of our food supply relies on pollinators for fertilization. Garden flowers, shrubs and trees depend on pollinators, too. With the alarming decline of native and honey bee colonies, a projected 40% of all insect species threatened by extinction, and the rise of toxic pesticides in lawn and insect control products, we hope to raise awareness and support sustainable practices for lawns, gardens and landscapes. Everyone is welcome to join the Pollinator Pathway Stamford: residents, organizations, businesses, schools, and town-managed properties. Join Pollinator Pathway Stamford SIGN UP: News & Events, Join PPS View Stamford Pollinator Pathway map. Download the Stamford Pollinator Pathway Brochure Participate Add native pollinator plants, shrubs or trees to your property, whether yard, garden, patio or balcony. Help to eliminate widespread application of pesticides and fertilizers. Spread the word by educating friends and neighbors. Order a Pollinator Pathway Sign . Volunteer Help spread awareness at farmers markets and public events, create, water and maintain pollinator gardens and help manage invasive species in public parks. Have a skill you can share with PPS? Get in touch ! News View All > Fern Galperin ​ May 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ April 2024 Newsletter Read... Fern Galperin ​ March 2024 Newsletter Read... News Archives February 2024 Newsletter January 2024 Newsletter. December 2023 Newsletter November 2023 Newsletter October 2023 Newsletter September 2023 Newsletter August 2023 Newsletter July 2023 Newsletter. June 2023 Newsletter May 2023 Newsletter April 2023 Newsletter . March 2023 Newsletter February 2023 Newsletter January 2023 Newsletter December 2022 Newsletter November 2022 Newsletter and PPS Map . October 2022 Newsletter Pollinator Pathway Stamford Recipient of Community Grant September 2022 Newsletter Join Us Sept. 10 - Kosciuszko Park Pollinator Garden August 2022 Newsletter July 2022 Newsletter Pollinator Celebration at Designs by Lee June 2022 Newsletter Managed Natural Meadow Exception, an Amendment to Blight Ordinance May 2022 Newsletter Audubon Talk on Bird-Friendly Plants May 21 Earth Day in Kosciuszko Park NEW Kosciuszko Park Pollinator Garden Campaign! PPS Celebrates Year of the Bird PPS at Bartlett Arboretum Honey Harvest Festival Stamford Passes Ordinance Banning Pesticides Stamford kids help Pollinator Pathway trees flourish Stamford group looks to grow more pollinator pathways Pollinator Pathway garden debuts in Stamford Articles View All > Melanie Hollas & Fern Galperin ​ 2024 Speaker Series: Healthy Yards for Pollinators, Pets & People Read... Melanie Hollas & Becky Collins ​ 2022 PPS Accomplishments Read... Becky Collins ​ Pollinator Garden Toolkit for Schools Read... Article Archives Bygone Bugs Spring Cleanup, But Not Too Early! Pollinator Pathway Stamford 2021 Accomplishments The Incredible Shrinking Lawn: How to create a nature-friendly yard ​ Buy Native Plants in Stamford Designs By Lee ​ Eden Farms ​ High Ridge Nursery Native Garden Templates Our friends at Aspetuck Land Trust have put together easy to follow garden plans and native hedgerow plans that will have a succession of beautiful blooms through the seasons. ​ How to Start a Pollinator Garden Toolkit : Schools Home ​ ​ How to Winter Sow Now's a great time to start winter sowing. Learn how here . Winter sow these plants . Control of Common Invasives Japanese knotweed, when to cut? View the answer to this as well as the control of several other invasive plants here . Contact pollinatorpathwaystamford@gmail.com Donate Want to Support the Pollinator Pathway Stamford but do not have time to volunteer? Help us grow by donating at one of our events or send donations to: Pollinator Pathway Stamford 18 Tremont Ave Stamford, CT 06906 We are a Community Group and not a 501C3 organization. Our Community Partners Follow Us 2024 Pollinator Pathway Stamford Speaker Series with Mill River Park Collaborative @ The Whittingham Discovery Center 1040 Washington Blvd, Stamford, CT (Parking ) The Payoffs of a Pesticide-Free Yard Louise Washer Co-Founder Pollinator Pathway President, Norwalk River Watershed Association Wednesday, April 24 6:00pm An eye-opening discussion about pesticides commonly used on lawns and gardens. Learn about their negative impacts on human health and the environment, effective alternatives, and current state policy on pesticides restrictions. FREE. Registration required . More on the full speaker series .

< PPS Homepage May 2024 Newsletter Fern Galperin ​ Learn important facts about poisonous PFAS and Pesticides from two presentations held in Stamford by the CT director of Clean Water Action and the Co-founder of Pollinator Pathway. We can take steps to remove these toxins from the environment. Plant natives that support native pollinators, such as the Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly. Upcoming plant sale at Bartlett and an interesting video about planting a garden in NYC. Read May Newsletter . Previous Next

< PPS Homepage Stamford Pollinator Pathway Archived Articles Melanie Hollas & Fern Galperin ​ 2024 Speaker Series: Healthy Yards for Pollinators, Pets & People Read... Peggy Erlenkotter ​ Bygone Bugs Read... Connecticut Magazine ​ The Incredible Shrinking Lawn: How to create a nature-friendly yard Read... Melanie Hollas & Becky Collins ​ 2022 PPS Accomplishments Read... Katie Haas ​ Spring Cleanup, But Not Too Early! Read... Becky Collins ​ Pollinator Garden Toolkit for Schools Read... Becky Collins ​ Pollinator Pathway Stamford 2021 Accomplishments Read...

< PPS Homepage February 2024 Newsletter Fern Galperin ​ Help mitigate flood and drought on your property by adding native plants, grasses, shrubs and trees and shrinking your lawn. A beautiful blue Spring Azure butterfly could show up in March. Keep an eye out. It's a good time to clean and sharpen your garden tools as well as removing invasives. Learn about this and more in the February newsletter. Previous Next

About Us Pollinator Pathway: Our Grassroots Movement Pollinator Pathway: Strategic Plan How to “Bee” Part of the Pollinator Pathway Create a way-station for pollinators! • plant native pollinator-friendly trees, shrubs, and perennials! • provide a source of clean water • leave some dead wood and dirt patches for nesting bees Rethink your lawn. • leave the clippings on the grass as fertilizer rather than adding chemicals​ • leave the leaves--many pollinators overwinter in leaf matter • consider the use of slow-release organic fertilizers or none at all • reduce lawn size by adding native plants • mow less often • no need for pesticides! this means a healthy lawn for your children and pets too! Sign Up! To Sign up, call (877-679-2463) or email us ! and learn about planting parties, get resources about invasive and native plants, and be invited to community events! The first of these Pollinator Pathway projects began in 2017 in Wilton, CT. Since then, Pathways have been established in over 300 towns in 11 states, and the list keeps growing. In 2021, the Pollinator Pathway became a nonprofit with 501c3 status and created a board of directors which includes organizers from several towns. The board works to support the network of community Pathway projects by managing this website and our social media, helping new pathways get started, connecting people to Pathways near them, advocating for policy that protects pollinators and pollinator habitat, holding webinars and information workshops, and more... Community Pollinator Pathway projects are organized by volunteers from town conservation organizations (listed on each town's page ) working together to establish pollinator-friendly habitat and food sources for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinating insects and wildlife along a series of continuous corridors. Most native bees have a range of about 750 meters, so the goal is to connect properties that are no farther apart than that. ​ Without pollinators, we can’t feed ourselves . Pollination enables the plants in our yards, parks, farms and orchards to reproduce. Imported European honey bees are the bees we think of most often, but there are over 4000 species of bees native to the United States, and they play a vital role in pollinating the plants we rely on in our communities. Pollinator populations are in sharp decline because of pesticide use and loss of habitat. Bee populations, both native and honey bees, have seen sharp declines. Monarch butterflies have declined by 94.6% in the last 20 years, according to the US Wildlife Federation . A recent German study shows a 75% decline in all flying insects in the last 25 years. The threat to pollinators is a threat to us! Because the Pollinator Pathway “de-fragments” the environment, it benefits our ecosystem as a whole. Our landscape has been chopped up, or fragmented, through urban- and suburban-ization. The problem is, we can no longer support sustainable populations of wildlife in our isolated parks and preserves alone, as Dr. Doug Tallamy, University of Delaware entomologist, argues so eloquently in his book Bringing Nature Home . Luckily, there is a solution. If we begin to manage our own yards organically and with native plantings, we can use them to connect parks and preserves, creating crucial corridors for wildlife. That is the idea behind the Pollinator Pathway. Why do native plants matter? Our local pollinators have evolved to depend on our local plants. Our caterpillars and bees can’t use trees from China and Japan. The monarch butterfly is a good example as it must have the milkweed plant to survive. Without the milkweed, there will be no monarchs, and we don’t typically put these “weeds” in our yards. They have also been eradicated from fields by farmers, and now the monarch is in danger of extinction. What to plant . Here are our favorite plant lists. How This Project Got Started In 2016 environmentalist Donna Merrill of Wilton was working as part of the Hudson-to-Housatonic Regional Conservation Partnership (H2H) and was tasked with creating a community land stewardship project. She read about a conservation corridor project linking pollinator waystations and decided to try the idea. Merrill offered neighbors between South Salem, NY and Ridgefield, CT free native dogwood trees, funded by H2H, to help create connected pollinator habitat, and it was a huge success. ​ Next she convened a group in her town of Wilton (the Land Trust , Wilton Garden Club , Woodcock Nature Center , and the Norwalk River Watershed Association ) and proposed doing something similar through town. Out of this idea, emerged the Pollinator Pathway as it exists today in the North East, town-based organizations run by volunteers from various town conservation organizations that encourage both citizens and municipalities to plant native pollinator-friendly plants and avoid pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Though each town identifies a pathway that they will focus on connecting by reaching out to home and business owners along it, all are welcome to join the pathway project by simply providing safe habitat way-stations for pollinators. ​ Pathway member towns share resources and ideas through this website and we had our first all-town partner meeting in March 2019. ​ This Pollinator Pathway project is organized by a steering committee of volunteers. The First Pollinator Pathway Seattle artist, Sarah Bergmann, founded the original Pollinator Pathway which is an interdisciplinary ecological philosophy for healthy global design that connects parks to parks and combats urban sprawl. You can learn more about this project here , here and here . Find out more about the original Pollinator Pathway

< Back Liz Craig Board Member Elizabeth Craig is master gardener and arborist, she works on the Wilton Pollinator Pathway, Norwalk River Watershed Association and co-chairs the Wilton Garden Club Conservation Committee. Liz served on the Wilton Inland Wetlands Commission for 10 years, recently as chair. ‘What makes living in Wilton great is the open space, all the greenery. An outdoor enthusiast, she enjoys running or walking the dog along Wilton trails, swimming and kayaking in the Sound. Before moving to Wilton, Liz worked as a reference librarian for Merrill Lynch in NYC. Previous Next

< Back Mary Ellen Lemay Board Member Mary Ellen Lemay is from Trumbull, CT and is the Landowner Engagement Director for the Aspetuck Land Trust (Westport, Fairfield, Weston, Easton CT), Pollinator Pathway Facilitator for the Hudson to Housatonic Regional Conservation Partnership, and also a Member of the Connecticut Native Plants Working Group. She has a BS in Biology from Fairfield University, an MBA from Fordham University, and a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale School of the Environment. Mel is also a chairwoman of the Trumbull Conservation Commission, a CT DEEP, Certified Master Wildlife Conservationist, and on the Board of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Metro COG Conservation Technical Advisory Committee. Previous Next

< Back Mary Hogue Board Member Mary Hogue is one of our speakers for the Pollinator Pathway and is happy to present to your group in person or virtually. She is the Chair of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, Co-Chair of the CT League of Conservation Voters, Chair of the Fairfield Forestry Committee, which includes the Fairfield Pollinator Pathway, Secretary on Sustainable Fairfield, Co-President of Fairfielders Protecting Land and Neighborhoods (FairPLAN), a Board Member of the Mill River Wetland Committee and founding member of Friends of Larsen, a volunteer group for the CT Audubon’s Larsen Sanctuary in Fairfield. She is a graduate of the Maine Composting School as well as UConn’s Master Composter and Master Gardener Programs. Previous Next

< Back Karalyn Lamb Board Member Karalyn Lamb serves as the co-editor of the Pollinator Pathway newsletter. She also serves on the steering committee of the Native Plant Center, Valhalla; representing the NPC in the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management. Her local conservation efforts include working with Saw Mill River Audubon to protect grassland bird and pollinator habitat on a 100 acre capped landfill in Westchester County NY. Recently she helped create the Westchester Land Trust Pollinator Pop-Up; a bi-lingual, beginner-friendly online toolkit of pollinator resources. She has completed Botany, Ecological Gardening and Urban Naturalist certificates from the New York Botanical Garden. Previous Next

< Back Jana Hogan Vice President Jana Hogan joined the Pollinator Pathway in 2017 as a representative of Woodcock Nature Center where she served as President of the Board of Directors. Woodcock's property straddles the Ridgefield-Wilton line, the 151-acre nature preserve, joined the project, helping to launch one of the first Pollinator Pathways. As a founding member, she developed the Pollinator Pathway website. She is responsible for managing correspondence, assisting towns and communities in promoting their pathway project, and adding individual properties to the Pollinator Pathway Map. She is a member of the Ridgefield Conservation Commission, Ridgefield Action Committee for the Environment (RACE), and the Ridgefield Garden Club. Jana volunteers for the Norwalk River Watershed Association and the Ecotype project at the Hickories, and is a Scout Merit Badge Counselor for Connecticut Yankee Council. Previous Next