By Paul Barringer and Jean Devine of Native Plant Community Gardeners
Our first Biodiversity Day festival was a success! On Saturday, May 4th, over 120 visitors came to Danehy Park, Cambridge, to join birding tours, Miyawaki Forest tours, learn about pollinator gardens, native plants, and ecosystem restoration from ten local environmental organizations who joined us for the day.
Native Plant Community Gardens* and Biodiversity for a Livable Climate co-hosted this celebration to build enthusiasm for the power of biodiversity, and native plants in particular, to restore ecosystems, boost human health, build resiliency and help mitigate climate change.
This fun festival captured the attention of adults, children and passersby with live music from the Hot Tamale Brass Band and Joh Camara Malian Drummers, crafting creatures from natural materials and pollinator games for kids, native plant seed giveaways, climate haikus, weaving Hoops of Hope and lively conversations with eco-advocates about mini-forests, soil health, pollinator gardening, as well as ideas for transforming lawns and parks into healthy, thriving habitats for native bees, moths, birds and wildlife.
The organizations who joined us for Biodiversity Day are:
Massachusetts Pollinator Network
Grow Native Mass
Mystic/Charles Pollinator Pathways
Cambridge Plant & Garden Club
Green & Open Somerville
Mothers Out Front Soil Group
Climate Conservation Corps
Green Cambridge
Biodiversity BuildersSM Youth Program
We are grateful to them for sharing their expertise and deep understanding of biodiversity with so many visitors on a cool and windy day!
*Native Plant Community Gardens is a Cambridge-based group of volunteers who will be planting the first pollinator garden in a Cambridge public park (Danehy Park) this September. Our mission is to create demonstration pollinator gardens and meadows that can be replicated by residents and make Cambridge wildly beautiful. To learn more and to join this effort, please contact us at www.nativeplantcommunitygardeners.org.
Our lead partner is Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, who led the installation, with support from the City of Cambridge and SUGI, of the first Miyawaki Forest in the Northeast U.S. at Danehy Park in September 2021.