Anthea Fawcett presentation ASAAP Conference Nov 2008
Public Lands Pollinator Conservation
1. Public Lands & Pollinator
Conservation:
A citizen science approach
Christian Keeve & Lillian Muecke
AmeriCorps VISTA – Parks Department
October 2016
2. Public Lands for Food Security &
Community Gardens
Joint venture between the Parks Department and the Billings Metro VISTA Project with
the purpose of:
• Building community by fostering a welcoming and supportive environment for plot
owners, workshop participants, and the community at large
• Providing educational opportunities through mentoring, classes, camps, workshops
and printed resources
• Reaching low-income citizens through education, empowerment, and access
• Engaging in the local food movement through the locally-sourced production of
healthy, fresh produce
3. Framing the Issue
• The USDA defines a food desert as:
“at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a
supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles)”
• Up to 1/3 of Montana residents are at risk of hunger
• 12.9% of Billings residents live below the poverty line
4.
5.
6. Community Gardening Initiative
• VISTAs brought on in
February 2014
• Policies and forms
developed
• Irrigation system put in
• Fence constructed
• Compost brought in
• Sites tilled
• Gardens planted
• 2015
• 2956lbs of produce
• 37 individual plots, 5
communal
• 2016
• ~4500lbs of produce
• 47 individual plots, 7
communal
• Songbird Community
Garden scheduled for 2017
7. Garden-Based Pollinator
Conservation
• Mutualism of pollinator approach is
central to community gardening
• Native plant focus allows for more
permanent fixtures, simultaneously
engages aesthetically and culturally
•Opens place-based space for
ethnobotany, environmental history,
bioregionalism…
8. How are food security,
pollinator conservation, and
native plant restoration
mutually constructive?
9. How do we use the texture of
the urban landscape to address
these inter-connected needs?
10. How can we move towards a
solution that engages with the
socio-cultural landscape as well
as the physical one?
11. Expanding the Promise of Community
Gardening
• “Pocket Parks” in conjunction with a pollinator corridor as a way to increase
accessibility to fresh foods
• Emphasis on native edible plants for a sense of local environment and
longevity
• Placement possibilities in downtown, neighborhoods, trail ways, etc.
