Help Our Students Plant for Pollinators!

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is committed to uniting all Americans to ensure that wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world. Since 2013, NWF in New York City has been partnering with the National Park Service, the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the NYC Department of Education and partners on a program called Growing a Wild NYC (see www.growingwildnyc.org). The year-long program engages K-12 students, and teachers in NYC public schools, and community volunteers, in creating and restoring pollinator habitat in their schools and local parks, while teaching them about their environment. 

Through a series of Six Steps, Growing a Wild NYC educates students about the important role of pollinators and the causes of their decline. It empowers them to grow and plant the native plants that pollinators need to survive. More than 2,000 students have made a tangible difference for wildlife since 2013 by planting thousands of native plants in parks and schoolyards in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. They have seen flowers bloom and native pollinators return to the areas they restored.

Unfortunately, in 2017, NWF and NPS lost their funding for this highly successful and much-loved program. The program is continuing without funding thanks to the passion and dedication of the partners. However, we lack the funds to purchase the native plants, from the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, that the students will need to plant in June 2018!!  

Please help us help the pollinators by donating generously so we can purchase the plants we need to create more pollinator habitat in New York City!

October/November – First Field Trip to Gateway National Recreation Area  Introduction to Growing a Wild NYC program, seed collection and cleaning, soil testing, STEM activities, initial Fall plantings in park.

November - Order for thousands of native seedlings placed with Greenbelt Native Plant Center. These plants supplement what students grow in the classroom.

January – First Classroom Visit by Program Staff  Introduction to seeds, seed germination, how to grow seedlings under grow lights in the classroom, how to care for seedlings.

March – Second Classroom Visit by Program Staff  Staff demonstrate how to “step up” or transfer seedlings from seed trays to pots for later planting into the ground. Staff follow up with schools on their seed-growing experiments and protocols.

May/June – Students Create Pollinator Gardens  Students, teachers, volunteers and program staff plant hundreds of high nectar seedlings that they've grown in their classrooms in their schoolyards.

May/June – Final Field Trip to Gateway  All students return to their local national park to plant thousands of high nectar seedlings provided by our local native plant nursery, Greenbelt Native Plant Center.

Over 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants require a pollinator to reproduce. In the United States one third of all agricultural output depends on pollinators.  Insects (butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, ants, wasps) and other animal pollinators (bats, birds) are vital to the production of healthy crops for food, fibers, edible oils, medicines, and other products. 

Unfortunately, populations of bees and other pollinators are declining around the world as a result of habitat loss, overuse of pesticides, parasites and disease, and climate change and extreme weather events that are disrupting natural cycles and migration patterns.

Growing a Wild NYC educates students about this important global issue and engages students in restoring the critical habitat that pollinators need to survive 

National Park Service staff have chosen.native plant species for planting that will bloom throughout the growing season, to ensure that pollinators can have food all year round.

More importantly, the program seeks to create pollinator corridors that connect schoolyards and parks so that pollinators have as many places to rest and feed as possible, especially as they're migrating through New York City!