The Natural Explorations Club members meet at the Bandit Cafe to make plans for their upcoming pollinator garden. L-R: Therese Davis, Crystal Sager, Julia Mabry, and Flint Largin Photo courtesy of the Natural Explorations Club

A small group of Clatsop Community College students is working to bring more native bees, butterflies and beneficial insects to campus with the launch of the college’s first-ever pollinator garden. 

 

The project is an undertaking of the Natural Explorations Club — a group recently founded by students Flint Largin and Crystal Sager and advised by science instructor Julia Mabry. Together, they’ve worked closely with Oregon State University Extension Service educator Matt Solberg, who is guiding the project’s planning and implementation.

 

One key goal, Mabry said, is to expand hands-on learning and community engagement opportunities. 

 

“We don’t have anything like it on our campus, and I take a lot of my classes out in the field frequently to learn botany, to learn ecology, all kinds of things like that,” she said. “To have our own little site on campus where we can study and do things is just fabulous for my classes, and the club was really excited about it.”

 

This isn’t the first project the club has taken on — earlier this year, the group filled Easter eggs with native seeds for the Associated Student Government’s Easter egg hunt. They also partnered with Solberg on an invasive plant exhibit on campus. To Sager, however, those efforts have all pointed toward the larger goal of starting a pollinator garden.

 

“This is our main project, this is what we’ve been really working on, so everything that we’ve done has kind of revolved around it,” she said. 

 

The project is still in its early stages, but the group has already put together initial designs, which they recently shared at the college’s first RiverSea Conference, a student-led research showcase. They’ve also begun weeding the area and working with Solberg to identify existing plants and make a plan for them.

 

In the weeks to come, club members will begin moving sword ferns from the site and solarizing the soil with tarps to eliminate noxious weeds and seeds. Then, next school year, they’ll partner with one of Mabry’s classes to plant a range of native plants, from pearly everlasting and goldenrod to douglas aster and yarrow, plus kinnikinnick around the edges of the plot. The garden will be right in the middle of campus, between the library and Patriot Hall. 

 

As the work progresses, Sager said the hope is to create something that will benefit the community — and pollinator species — for years to come.

 

“This isn’t just a get it done quick project,” Sager said. “This is something that’s going to take time and a lot of care, and soI think with that, we’re really excited to work on it and just have it be like an extended project, because the more care we give it, and the better attention we put into it, the longer lasting it will be.”