MANITOU SPRINGS — The city of Manitou Springs is getting a new certificate. Manitou Springs is now the world's first-ever certified municipal pollinator district.
A pollinator district is a community that shows a commitment to increasing habitat for pollinators and also educating the community about them.
The Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, Colorado, is presenting Manitou Springs with this award. This certification recognizes the city's effort toward protecting and preserving pollinators.
Amy Yarger is the Horticulture Director at Butterfly Pavilion. She and her team worked with the Manitou Springs City Parks Department and the Manitou Pollinators to create more pollinator habitats in the city.
“A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from one plant to another and what that does is that allows the plant to make seeds viable seeds,” Yarger said.
Pollinators are very important to human food production and plant life.
“If you like to breathe, you probably need a pollinator as well. I think the first thing that people think about with pollinators is their connection to our food system. So one out of every three bites we eat comes to us because of an animal pollinator,” Yarger said.
Yarger said pollinators affect everyone no matter what people eat.
“So if you like to eat, you need a pollinator,” Yarger said. “I love chocolate. I love coffee. All of those things require an animal to make sure that those plants reproduce. But even beyond that, pollinators are really one of the keystones of our ecosystem function,” Yarger said.
Honey bees are a well-known pollinator but there are also many more.
“So there are butterflies and moths and flies and beetles and Wasps and other insects too, that transport pollen. So that's why biodiversity and really taking a biodiversity approach ensures that these pollinators and their habitats can continue to thrive,” Yarger said.
Yarger said the certification could not have been done with the people of Manitou Springs and the local group and non-profit known as the Manitou Pollinators.
One of the founders and executive director of the Manitou Pollinators is Melody Daugherty. Daugherty says it's important for her generation to do what they can to leave behind a better world.
“Pollinators have been taking care of you and me for millennia. They've been taking care of wildlife, they have been taking care of Earth and so without them, the ecosystem that we know would lose everything. So if you don't have them. The gig is up,” Daugherty said.
Daugherty is passionate about climate control and took a big interest in pollinators when she learned their populations have started to decrease over the years. Now that there are more pollinators innovators around town, Daugherty said it is a call for celebration.
“I feel like it's just like the best thing in the world. That's how I feel. It's a deep satisfaction I feel and a deep contentment and a joy. I have fulfilled my obligations and duties to my elders,” Daugherty said.
Nancy Fortuin is on the Manitou Springs Mayor Pro Team and she is excited about this certification.
“I am just so very excited about it because I'm a gardener myself. I was a beekeeper. It's very hard to keep bees in this part of Colorado. So this is such an achievement and it validates what we're doing right here in Manitou,” Fortuin said.
Fortuin said Manitou Springs became a pollinator district because locals value environmental sustainability and there was a rise in concern regarding these pollinator populations.
“A few years ago, we noticed that our bee populations were decreasing. Beekeepers in the community were saying how many hives they had lost. So, people started looking at what we could do as a community to help improve that situation,” Fortuin said.
With the help of the Manitou Pollinators, local volunteers and the city’s park and recreation department, they partnered with the Butterfly Pavilion to try to fix the declining pollinators.
Over the past couple of years, Manitou Springs and the Butterfly Pavilion have created numerous initiatives across town.
“We have to have a systemic approach to our pollinator gardens throughout the city, so it can't be just the beautiful gardens you see here in front of City Hall. There has to be a system where pollinators can go from garden to garden throughout our city,” Fortuin said.
The city has created pollinator habitats in both natural and urban areas. Another huge push to help the pollinators is by planting only and more native species.
“We have to have native plants that pollinators are attracted to. So we've replaced a lot of our plants that were not sustainable and that were not native. We've done things like that and so on and so on,” Fortuin said.
Manitou Springs will become a model for other cities to follow in regard to pollinator habitats. Fortuin, Daugherty and Yarger said this is only the beginning and they are looking forward to working with other places to implement pollinator habitats.
Yarger and the Butterfly Pavilion will honor and present Manitou Springs with the certificate this Saturday.
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