Program intended to teach students, youth about area pollinators and native plants

Here’s something buzzworthy: a Rogue Valley educational organization is plunging into the new school year with plans to continue a program intended to connect students and other youth with native plants in the Southern Oregon bioregion.

Pollinator Pals, a Pollinator Project Rogue Valley (PPRV) program, “continues to develop engaging hands-on lessons and activities developed for Oregon science standards,” a PPRV news release says.

Over the past year, Pollinator Pals taught 13 lessons at six schools to about 1,500 youth, with an educational footprint that extends from Grants Pass to Ashland.

PPRV worked closely with United Communities/AmeriCorps in the summer of 2022 to bring on its first AmeriCorps member, Ethan Robison, as its pollinator educator and outreach specialist.

The program is funded in part by grants from the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation and Carpenter Foundation. It is designed with a goal of sparking “interest and passion in our youth to learn more about our local native plants and pollinators and to inspire our community to be caretakers and change makers for our local ecosystems,” the release said.

Local schools and educators are encouraged to reach out to PPRV and invite Pollinator Pals to their classrooms, events, workshops or clubs.

For more information on the Pollinator Pals program or how to be involved, reach PPRV at 458-214-0508 or ethan.pprv@gmail.com. To sponsor Pollinator Pals, or any PPRV programs, reach out to Kristina Lefever at pollinatorprojectroguevalley@gmail.com.