Pollinator Week

HummingbirdPollinator Week is an annual event celebrated internationally in support of pollinator health. It's a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them!

The City of Barrie continues to support and recognize Pollinator Week, as we are a designated Bee City and want to protect and celebrate our pollinators.

Virtual Activities

View the pollinator-related webinars, tips and resources available online at the Barrie Public Library's website, including:

• Bee mindful
  Learn why bees matter! Meet the creator behind Adam's Honey and make a beeswax candle.
  
  
• Beneficial bugs: bee and bug hotels
  Make your own insect hotel.
  
  
• Sweet benefits of beeswax food wraps
  Beeswax food wraps are an option to living without plastic in your kitchen. Alison Oakes, from Oh Beehive, explains how to use them and shrink your environmental footprint.
  
  
• How to help our pollinators this spring
  Stephanie Wideman from the City of Barrie shares how to help pollinators each spring.
  
  
• A curated list of featured books and resources related to pollinators

Resources

Barrie Public Library
“Borrow” seeds from the Seed Library! Community gardeners can borrow up to three packets of seeds, while supplies last. Fill out the Seed Library Request Form and include your top five picks from the list of seed options, and the Library will provide you with three of your top five choices from the available supply.

Barrie Urban Gardeners Facebook Group
Barrie Urban Gardens was started by a group of people who are passionate about getting the citizens of Barrie excited and engaged in growing food in their homes, yards and through our local community gardens. This Facebook group is an online space to share tips and ideas, ask questions, facilitate seed/seedling swaps and more!

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority

• Follow along and learn how to make your very own origami pollinator creatures with the Bee video (beginner)
  or Hummingbird video (intermediate).
  
  
• Use this Nature Math worksheet to practice multiplication with a pollinator twist.
  
  
• Check out this Nature Math worksheet to practice multiplication and division while helping a monarch butterfly migrate to Mexico.
  
  
• Learn all about bees in the Neighbourhood Naturalists video.
  
  
• Find out about the differences between butterflies and moths in this Neighbourhood Naturalists video, and learn how to set up a moth sheet in your backyard.
  
  
• Use the Seek app by iNaturalist to help identify local plants, animals and insects. 

Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority
Naomi Saunders, Manager of Environmental Education, gives a video tour of the conservation area. There is also a map to explore different native flowers in bloom.

Wild Birds Unlimited
Join Kristen from Wild Birds Unlimited Barrie as she takes a closer at pollinators, including the different groups of pollinators and how you can support them in your yard.

Gwen Petreman (local children’s author, illustrator, educator and presenter)
View Gwen's presentations: The Magic of Pollinators and The Importance of Pollinators.

Pollinator Partnership
A number of resources, including tip sheets, "How to build a bee condo," and a bee ID guide are available on the Pollinator Partnership's website.

Monarch butterfly caterpillar
Living Green Barrie
Andee Pelan from Living Green Barrie shares how trees help bees.

Forests Ontario
Forests Ontario created Tree Bee, a tree identification tool for communities, families and classrooms. It’s a great chance to get kids excited about forests, and an opportunity for families to spend time learning together outdoors. There is also a Teacher's Guide to accompany the tool.

In this Forests Ontario webinar, Dr. Shelia Colla talks about the importance of pollination, describes wild bee biodiversity, discusses threats to bees, and explores how the public can support bee species at risk of extinction. Watch the Let it Bee: Conserving Wild Bees webinar recording.