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The Challenge
Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators are important because they give us delicious foods to eat, keep our ecosystems healthy and help to grow our economy. However, our pollinator populations are facing many challenges like pesticide use on feeding and breeding areas, loss of habitat and climate change. As more land is altered for human activities, it’s important to create pockets of pollinator habitat where people live, work and play. Adapting gardens to make them pollinator-friendly is a great place to start. Each suitable garden is a haven that can act as a stepping stone between larger areas of habitat, essential for healthy pollinator populations.
Educators, you and your students can give pollinators a boost by learning about them, planting nectar rich blooms in a school or community garden and by documenting the pollinators that visit the garden. The Canadian Wildlife Federation can help with our WILD Spaces program – a pollinator conservation program for schools. WILD Spaces is best suited for students in grades three to six but can easily be adapted for younger and older participants alike. 
Our online classroom has learning activities designed to help students learn about pollinators, discover how to create pollinator habitat in a garden and interact with participants from across the country, as they share stories and pictures of their journey on a safe platform.
Putting knowledge into action will help students process the information they’ve learned about pollinators and creating habitat. The garden they create will no doubt help pollinators, but what may be more beneficial are the personal learning experiences and opportunities for nature connection that can happen in a garden. These experiences can generate important conversations within your school community and instil a lifelong conservation ethic for participants. WILD Spaces will support you with resources to facilitate this learning experience and create a successful pollinator garden. 
Students use the iNaturalist Canada app to share pictures of the animals that visit the wild spaces they’ve created. The data your group collects will contribute to a growing wealth of knowledge of Canadian wildlife species. 
