If You Build It…

Monarchs and hummingbirds have been spotted in downtown Escondido!

In 2017, volunteers from Escondido and California State University San Marcos’ (CSUSM) Environmental Studies Club transformed the Plaza Del Arroyo pocket park into a thriving pollinator garden. Despite the summer heat waves, they have successfully provided habitat for local pollinators including bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. Inspired by the success of this garden, we will be helping install three more pollinator gardens this year. One will be planted by Conway Elementary school’s Super Stewards and a second and third will be installed at CSUSM, which will create two native pollinator gardens on campus:one in their former smoking section and the other bordering the Sustainable Food Project garden.

Nathan Serrato, a former student and officer of the CSUSM Environmental Studies Club (Club), conceived of the idea during his time as a student at CSUSM and will help lead the project as the Marketing and Volunteer Manager for the Conservancy. The Environmental Studies Club was officially awarded the Sustainable Funds Project grant for $8,000 over the summer and will be involved in the planning and planting of the garden. These two native pollinator demonstration gardens will be monitored by the students of the Environmental Studies department and led by Biology instructor, Christina Simokat. Getting the students outdoors to help plant and monitor the projects is essential to their learning and understanding of native pollinator ecosystems. Last month, the Conservancy met with CSUSM campus facilities, Club representatives, and California’s Own Native Landscape Design’s, Greg Rubin, to plan the project.  The initial site testings are underway and planting will happen near the end of October. Stay tuned for more buzzworthy updates on native pollinators!