Our Pollinators Eat Local, Too!

Simpson’s initial pollinator focus was butterflies because, as she says, “they are pretty, their grace and beauty captivated me. Then I realized that there was a whole lot more pollinator action going on my garden than just butterflies. There was a whole variety of insects and wildlife in my garden involved in pollination. These included butterflies, bees, flies, wasps, beetles, moths and other ‘bugs.’ Now, I even recognize there are non-insect pollinators like lizards, bats and hummingbirds that provide benefits, too.”

Very quickly Simpson started to experience what she calls her “love affair with pollinators.” She was amazed by the number of species of pollinators that she observed in her garden, currently 45 species of butterflies and 25 species of wasps. She has also identified 30 species of native bees, many of which, unlike European honey bees, are non-hiving, solitary bees that live in the garden underground or in holes in stems, logs and fences.

As a citizen scientist, Simpson readily confesses her pollinator love affairs and displays them complete with photos. She even has her list of favorite pollinators in each category. Her chosen tool for documenting her garden’s pollinators is her cell phone camera. “I may get only a few good photos for every 50 I take, but it is worth it,” she says. “I used these photos on iNaturalist.org to help identify them and record them for use by scientists.”

Simpson now curates an easily accessible, photo-filled Facebook archive of her garden’s visitors she calls “St. Julian’s Crossing Wildlife Habitat,” appropriately named after the patron saint of innkeepers and travelers, St. Julian the Hospitaller. She keeps it filled with her photos and also files tutorials and educational documents that she hopes will help jump start those who want to get involved in native plant gardening.

“While I’m seeing pretty things, I’ve also learned that pollinators are incredibly important to food production,” she says. “Two-thirds of our crops require animal pollination and one-third of our everyday food items require pollination by insects; 75 to 95% of flowering plants need insect or animal pollination.

“I also learned that pollinators and many insects are in trouble worldwide and they need our help. A recent study in Germany showed that in the past 30 years insect levels have decreased around 70%. I take seriously entomologist/author Doug Tallamy’s words when he says, ‘Insects can live without us, but we cannot live without insects.’”

Most of all, Simpson is inspired by the writings of Pope Francis about St. Francis of Assisi in his second encyclical, Laudato Si’. The Pope acknowledges St. Francis’s response to the natural world was so much more than mere intellectual appreciation or economic calculus. In a recent presentation, Simpson quoted Laudato Si’: “To St. Francis, ‘each . . . creature was united to him by bonds of affection. . . . Such conviction cannot be written off as naïve romanticism . . . By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists in nature, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.’”

To Simpson, these words and a cup of coffee are what get her up and out in the morning to watch over her pollinators while they consume her garden’s local goodness.