The sun-loving pollinator habitat garden along North Road on the UMass Chan campus
Photo: Bryan Goodchild
A pair of pollinator habitat gardens are under the careful watch of the Pollination Association at UMass Chan Medical School.
“These gardens provide vital habitats for pollinators, such as bees, butterflies and other insects that play a key role in pollinating plants and maintaining healthy ecosystems,” said Leslie Rutter, senior web application developer in IT Infrastructure Services, and co-chair of the Pollination Association with Heather Strom Tessier, an institutional review board education specialist in the Center for Clinical and Translational Science.
“These gardens offer educational opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage with sustainability efforts and learn about the interconnectedness of nature,” Rutter said.
The association was launched in 2023 and has enlisted nearly 60 students and faculty and staff members. The pollinator gardens include a garden with sun-tolerant plants on North Road near the student-run community gardens and a garden of shade-tolerant plants outside the glass walls of the Lamar Soutter Library. They feature more than 20 flowering species such as blue vervain, dwarf crested iris, Jacob’s ladder, leopard plant, black-eyed Susan and evening primrose. These provide essential nectar and pollen resources that support pollinating insects throughout the growing season.
Native plants ensure that pollinators benefit from species well-adapted to local conditions, increasing their effectiveness as reliable food sources. Both habitat gardens were planted by volunteers as part of UMass Chan’s Bee Campus USA commitment, achieved in May 2024.
“When we launched, we got support from Facilities Management. They provided us with tools and helped us weed the gardens and made sure the gardens were watered. The plants are all native and most of them came from volunteers. It’s been a great experience and a real campus-wide team effort,” Strom Tessier said.
Achieving certified pollinator status was a goal of UMass Chan’s Sustainability and Climate Action plan to increase biodiversity and community access to the green spaces on campus.
“Students and employees should take pride in this designation as it demonstrates the university’s leadership in environmental stewardship and its dedication to creating a healthier, more sustainable campus environment. It’s an opportunity to engage in hands-on conservation efforts and contribute to a growing movement that helps protect vital ecosystems,” Rutter said.
This year, in a further expansion of those efforts, Facilities Management started a pollinator area along the hillside south of the UMass Chan Power Plant along Lake Avenue North to expand on the campus’s pollinators and sustainable resource use.
“Since the plants are all native, there’s not much maintenance needed in the fall and winter. We’re hopeful the gardens will self-seed—we will let them do their thing and we will see what comes back. They’re built for this area. In the spring, we will get to assess again and that’s something to look forward to,” Strom Tessier said.
The Pollination Association meets the third Thursday of every month.
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