CONNEAUT – The many wonders of childhood include chasing butterflies in a field and catching lightning bugs after dusk.
It is the fear of some experts that future generations may not experience those wonders for themselves.
The Northeast Ohio Pollinator Festival at the Outdoor Learning Center is an event meant to educate the community in ways to ensure those future generations get to make the memories and have the experiences previous generations took for granted.
“It’s critical right now,” Suzanne Westlake, president of the Northeast Ohio Pollinator Society, said. “We’re losing a lot of beneficial insects. I’ve heard that we might be the last generation to see lightning bugs. How sad will that be if future kids can’t see lightning bugs? When it comes to actually gardening for insects, it’s critical that we all get together and increase how much habitat we have.”
The NEO Pollinator Festival featured a pair of speakers as well as a number of vendors and information tables.
Dave Tomashefski, director of education at Meadow City Native Plant Nursery, gave a presentation titled “A Garden Party for Butterflies: How to be the Ideal Host.”
Judy Semroc, a 25-year conservation specialist, field biologist, naturalist and educator, gave a talk titled “Welcome Summer into Your Garden with Planting Strategies to Cultivate Beneficial Insects, Birds and Mammals.”
“This is our summer festival,” Westlake said. “It starts with two speakers in the morning, we had Dave Tomashefski from Meadow City Nursery, and we had Judy Semroc with Nature Sparks. They gave really good talks about how to be a good host for beneficial insects and wildlife. It culminates in a free festival where we have plant vendors, we have food trucks and music. It’s just a good time of getting together and talking about how to make more habitat for some good bugs.”
The Pollinator Society welcomed a good number of people for the event.
“We hope to see about 100,” Westlake said. “We usually see about 100 every year.”
Approximately 40 people attended the morning talks.
Forty vendors also attended the event
“Some of them are coming from Cleveland,” Westlake said. “People are here from Mahoning County. It’s amazing. It’s really a regional process.”
Westlake was encouraged by the guests who attended the festival.
“It’s great to see people walking away with plants that they’re going to put into their own yard,” Westlake said. “I’m not asking for all of your yard. I’m just asking for a small part of your yard. I see people coming back year after year, putting more and more plants into their spot. It’s fantastic. They’re shrinking their yard. They’re making more habitat and they’re adding some really cool bugs onto their property.”
Having children attend the festival provides a higher level of education to a younger group of people.
“It is (priceless), absolutely, to think that they’re growing up, hoping that their children can see butterflies in their lifetime,” Westlake said. “Also, a lot of them are learning how important it is for their food source to have pollinators. If you want to keep having blueberries, if you want to keep having strawberries, you need to have pollinators, so it’s absolutely precious.”
Growing and protecting pollinators means complications, but the Pollinator Festival offered some solutions as well as an education.
“One of the main eaters of caterpillars is birds, and also you’ll have skunks and possums on that, so you start gardening more for caterpillars, you might end up with some skunks that you don’t want, and Dr. Dolittle’s can help out with that,” Westlake said.
The greatest message shared at the festival was straightforward.
“Basically, just increasing habitat is huge and finding out how to take care of invasive plants is huge,” Westlake said. “We’ve got different organizations that can help out with that.”
Westlake was thankful to everybody who either attended or participated in the festival.
“I want to thank the master gardener volunteers,” Westlake said. “I want to thank the Ashtabula County Beekeeper’s Association and the Board of Soil and Water Conservation District for allowing me to put so much of my heart into this. I’d like to thank everybody who came out today.”
“The Outdoor Learning Center is critical,” Westlake continued. “They put up a lot of these tents, put up a lot of the tables. They’re integral with setup. We couldn’t do it without them. Conneaut Schools are extremely supportive of this. I really appreciate the use of their building in the morning and then their grounds in the afternoon.”
