Education

Providing pollinator education to local residents and visitors is also a main goal of the project, to inspire many others to create their own pollinator-friendly gardens no matter where they live!  

Pollinator education has been done through: 

• Free classes at special event celebrations on Earth Day 2023, 2024, and 2025 at the Arivaca Dancehall, taught by project coordinator Emily Bishton, local butterfly expert Mary Scott, Jeanne Dodds from the Endangered Species Coalition, Rachel Burke from Bats Conservation International, and free activity tables sponsored by the Xerces Society.

• Free classes at the Arivaca Dancehall during Pollinators Week 2024, taught by local butterfly expert Mary Scott and Monica King from the Southern AZ Beekeeper's Association, and free activity tables sponsored by the Xerces Society.

• Free monthly environmental programs at the Arivaca Dancehall from Oct. 2024- Dec. 2025, sponsored by Friends of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge;

• Step-by-step, in-person guidance of community volunteers on proper soil-building, planting techniques, and simple DIY irrigation systems during the process of creating of each public garden;

• Free hands-on classes for the youth during the 2024 and 2025 Arivaca Community Center afterschool and summer programs;

• Examples of easy-to-grow pollinator-friendly plants and other features that visitors see in each garden, including the irrigation and maintenance practices that conserve our precious water;

• The Pollinator Plant List on this website;

• Printed brochures available free to the public at each pollinator garden, at at all classes and special events;

• The fabulous, pollinator-themed, Endangered Species @50 mural and the Nighttime Pollinators mural at the Arivaca Dancehall!