Pondering Pollinators

Summer 2026 at the Buck Creek Hatchery and Nature Centre was all about pondering pollinators and the essential native plants that they depend on. From major developments in our Pollinator Garden; to five days of day camp with kids; to teaching people camping in BC Parks about the importance of pollinators we got to share our learning with so many! (And potentially my friends and family got a little weary of me only talking about all the fascinating pollinator facts I had learned!)

A bird’s eye view of developments to our Pollinator Garden.

The summer started off with a deep dive into learning about pollinators and plants in the Bulkley Valley that are critical to our biodiversity and ecosystem. This survey from 2023 that was shared with us was an excellent starting point to learn about how plants and pollinators work together to support agriculture here in the Bulkley Valley. We used this information along with other research to create resources about “Plants for Pollinators in the Bulkley Valley” and “Pollinators in the Bulkley Valley”. These cards were so helpful on many nature walks in a variety of locations.

A few fun facts I learned in my research:

• Bunchberries (or Dogwood Flowers) have an explosive pollination mechanism! When a pollinator brushes against the sensitive trigger hair the flower snaps open, launching pollen upward in less than half a millisecond (watch the slow motion launch here).
• Lupine flowers depend on large, native bumblebees to “trip” the specialized pea-like flowers, forcing them to open and release a burst of pollen.
• Heartleaf Arnica is an important bright yellow flower that draws pollinators deeper into the understory of a forest which benefits many of the other plants.
• We commonly think of bees and butterflies as pollinators, but there are also other important pollinators such as hoverflies, moths, beetles and hummingbirds.
• Bees can’t see red so red flowers are geared towards hummingbirds and other pollinators that can see that shade. Instead bees can see the UV light spectrum therefore many flowers have UV runways to point bees towards the pollen.
• Hawkmoths are masters in mimicry! The Narrow-Bordered Bee Hawkmoth and the Hummingbird Clearwing look incredibly similar to bees and hummingbirds, respectively.
• Bees carry pollen in a variety of ways from having pollen pants (aka corbicula), to having fuzzy bodies that it statically sticks to, to having a crop (honey stomach) that they store pollen in.

The Pollinator Puppet Show

With some of the last minute funding that came through we were able to hire Graysen and Abby to help me with running day camps focused on pollination. We had 10 kids over five days of camps and lots of fun from playing pollinator relay races to creating puppets throughout the week for a pollinator puppet show to show off our learning at the end of the week. The kids can now confidently point out asters, fireweed and goldenrod on any future nature walks they go on!

Cindy and I also got to partner with BC Parks to do some interpretive programming at Tyhee Lake, Ross Lake and Red Bluff. We got to learn about Western Toads, fungi, biodiversity and pollination. We specifically focused on teaching folks about pollinators at Tyhee Lake and Red Bluff.

There are so many things that when we slow down to learn about them and take notice of them we start to see the connections everywhere. I am reminded of how God has created this incredible puzzle to work  together and so grateful that I not only get to follow my rabbit hole of questions to learn more but then I get to share that learning with others who are also curious about the world around them.