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The Pollinator Garden at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden

The Pollinator Garden at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden
The pollinator garden at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. Photo by Christine Hanrahan.
The pollinator garden at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. Photo by Christine Hanrahan.

Join Wild Pollinator Partners for a guided tour of the pollinator garden at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. We will explore who the wild pollinators are, their habitat, and native plant gardening. The garden tour will be led by members of the Wild Pollinator Partners, a network of individuals and organizations committed to protecting and promoting wild pollinators. Entomologists from the University of Ottawa will be on hand to answer any questions and to help identify insect species.


This walk is the first of a series of walking tours of pollinator gardens across the city. These tours will be held bi-weekly over the next five months. We'll have information about the garden tours to hand out to people during the walk.

The Fletcher Wildlife Garden is a project of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club and is now more than 30 years old. The goal of the project was to create a demonstration garden with natural habitat typical of our area—a wetland, a meadow, old and new woods, and a hedgerow—providing food, water, and shelter for wildlife. Local wildlife quickly found homes there and the species list has grown.


Listen to an interview with Entomologist Lydia Wong on CBC's All in a Day about native urban pollinators:

All in a Day segment

The Lydia Wong interview starts at about 1 min 50 sec into the segment.


Learn more about wild pollinators and Wild Pollinator Partners' events and activities at Wild Pollinator Partners.

Learn more about the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club here.

Location
Route

This walk will focus on the garden area of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden and the open meadow, but not the forested areas.

Meet at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden in the butterfly garden behind Building 138. Depending on the number of participants, we will divide into smaller groups. We'll do a tour around the butterfly garden and then go out into the meadow.

The walk will follow dirt or wood-chip-covered paths that include up-and-down slopes. If the weather is wet, it may be muddy in places. Choose your footwear accordingly.


To get to Fletcher Wildlife Garden: the garden is just south of the traffic circle on the east side of Prince of Wales Dr. The driveway entrance is marked with a sign showing the Garden's heron logo. There is parking on site.


Map showing location of public washrooms at the Experimental Farm.

About the walk leader

The walk is hosted by Wild Pollinator Partners, a network of individuals and organizations promoting and protecting wild pollinators and their habitats.

Sandy Garland and Ted Farnworth are both founding members of Wild Pollinator Partners and are active volunteers at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden.





Guides:

Sandy Garland and Ted Farnworth

When:
Date:Sun May 5, 2024
Time:1:00 PM
Duration: 1 hour 30 min
Language: English
Where:
Start:Fletcher Wildlife Garden, in the butterfly garden behind Building 138
End:same
Area:Arboretum
Distance:0.5 kms
Accessibility:

The walk will follow unpaved paths or grass with occasional slopes.

Gallery
The pollinator garden at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. Photo by Christine Hanrahan. Sign at entrance to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden on Prince of Wales A stop along the way, Jane's Walk 2019. Note the birdhouses on poles. Wildflowers bloom on the forest floor, Fletcher Wildlife Garden.
Volunteer to Marshal This Walk