Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
How four ninth graders cemented Oatland Island’s contribution to the Great Southeast Pollinator Census
At the Oatland Island Wildlife Center (OIWC), four first-year Oatland Wildlife Leaders (OWLs) met visitors with sharp attention, smiles and waves toward their picnic table.
“Would you like to count bugs?” OWL Program Coordinator and Naturalist Delaney Kern yelled to those within earshot.
But participation is touch-and-go. Ahead of visitors lies a two-mile trail meandering through 100 acres of forest, wetlands and salt marsh habitat home to alligators, falcons, wolves and armadillos. It seemed that bugs just weren’t as interesting.
On Saturday, Aug. 23, the OIWC kicked off its citizen science series with a pollinator survey as part of the University of Georgia’s Great Southeast Pollinator Census—a count that budded in Georgia in 2019 and has since spread to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Alabama. This year, the census is a three-day region-wide event from Aug. 22 to 24 for “citizens… of all ages.”
And one particular age group seemed to take the mantle for the OIWC. Four ninth-grade OWLs sat amid the biting bugs, humidity and rain for four hours to entice, explain and encourage people to care about pollinating insects. The census was not just about counting bugs but rather providing an outlet for youngsters whose natural world often becomes disrupted by storms and development.
“I don’t see as much wildlife near my home as I used to,” said one OWLS member.
The young and small, but mighty team
The pollinator survey is simple. Each participant is instructed to choose a “favorite” plant, and record the number and type of pollinators that land on it during a 15-minute observation. Pollinator categories include carpenter bees, small bees, bumblebees, honeybees, wasps, moths and butterflies, flies and “other.”
About 42 people participated at Oatland Island on Aug. 23, and a total of 16 identification sheets were collected. It seemed that most people didn’t expect the table to be there, despite over 100 “interested” reactions to OIWC’s Facebook announcement. The uncertainty of spotty rain likely discouraged many from showing up.
Nonetheless, each participant was met with enthusiasm by the team of ninth graders who work like a well-oiled machine, finishing each other’s sentences and providing clear instructions to everyone from toddlers to seniors. You wouldn’t guess they were only in their first week of the Savannah Chatham Public School System program for high schoolers who meet twice a month to learn about career pathways in environmental science and complete 30 hours of volunteer work. At the Saturday event, one OWL said she loves birds, another expressed she wants to be a marine biologist, and another is not quite sure what he’s interested in yet, but he seems quite determined to log counts of each type of pollinator into UGA’s database.
One OWL with dangly grasshopper earrings remembers the woods next to her home full of foxes, deer, cardinals and bugs crawling beneath the wood. She and her grandmother even built a pollinator garden that was full of milkweed, dill and wildflowers to attract butterflies.
“I liked seeing how everything plays a role in the ecosystem,” she said.
But the garden only lasted for about six months, until a hurricane flooded it out. Not long after, the woods were cleared for development of “cookie-cutter homes” when she was about seven years old, she said. Now, there’s not as much wildlife anymore, other than some turkey vultures and woodpeckers. Cardinals are rare.
Attracting participants like bees to a flower
OWLs leader Kern encourages participants to conduct their survey at the pollinator garden—a curated collection of plants buzzing with bugs heard upon arrival.
For many, it’s an example of a garden that some families no longer have.
“Helene took out our garden,” said Ashton O’Brien, who brought her her son, nieces and nephews to the OIWC, gathered around a bush with clipboards and pencils in hand.
“Bees [are] what we need thriving for food and such,” said one of her nephews, Vincent Stoehr, 15. At his home near the woods, he sees carpenter bees and bumblebees, he said. He expressed confidence in being able to count the pollinators that surround his plant of choice, a scarlet sage, several of which are wasps—a pollinator he’s not much fond of. “If they don’t pay rent… I don’t understand why they’re there.”
Stoehr counted a total of seven bees and two other unidentified insects. “Note: Found [Anole] lizard at the flowers,” he wrote at the bottom of the paper.
Just a few yards away from the family, a clipboarded couple observes a salvia, a plant that they have in their own pollinator garden. Scott and Sandy Kathey began regular visits to the OIWC in 2021, and decided to partake in the survey because “it’s hard to get people to participate in that kind of stuff,” said Sandy Kathey.
While the couple passed by the survey table at first, “one of the reasons we did turn back is because the registration team was so enthusiastic,” she added.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.