UFV’s pollinator garden will help rebuild local ecosystem after the 2021 flood and heat dome. The kick off event for the pollinator garden was led by biology professors Alan Reid and Sandra Gillespie back in March as part of the UFV’s March for Sustainability series. This effort is a collaboration between a variety of UFV departments such as the Office of Sustainability, the School of Land Use and Environmental Change (SLUEC), the Biology department, the groundskeepers, and the SLUEC and Agriculture Student Associations, as well as the City of Abbotsford. The garden will not only benefit the pollinators, it will also provide a teaching space for courses on plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate biology as well as biodiversity and conservation.
Pollinator garden helps rebuild local ecosystem after 2021 flood and heat dome
Article by Gerald Narcisco, UFV Today
Just behind the Lá:lem te Baker student housing on UFV’s Abbotsford campus lies a new, neatly manicured garden. Lush green shrubs blend in with an assortment of flowers, herbs and plants. Some are in full bloom; others are just sprouting.
Although it is serene, the garden — which spans almost 100 feet — serves a greater purpose. The planners behind the pollinator garden at UFV were intentional, prioritizing functionality and social responsibility over aesthetics. They followed a saying commonly quoted in environmental circles, based on Indigenous teachings:
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
Those wise words align with UFV’s sustainability values.
