On Earth Day, April 22, a volunteer brigade of City of Powell River employees began a project that takes a novel approach to enriching environmental well-being, doing some green care and building a pollinator patch at city hall.
According to a media release, the pollinator patch is a piece of land dedicated to pollinator proliferation by providing food, water and shelter to species such as bees, butterflies and birds.
The release stated that the annual city employee wellness survey for 2022 indicated that climate distress was a priority with employees and one that needed attention. Climate distress, also called eco-anxiety, is shorthand for climate-related ecological distress, the release stated.
The project idea arose from learning about pollinator loss and its connection to the food supply chain through the Butterflyway Project, a nationwide movement orchestrated by the David Suzuki Foundation, stated Elena Martin, of Powell River’s VK Wellness Institute, which is facilitating the project. Since 2020, volunteers have been building pollinator habitats throughout the qathet region, including at least a dozen last year, according to Martin.
“Eco-anxiety is really a thing,” stated Martin. “I went through it myself. As a mother of a three-year-old and a scientist, I started deeply worrying about our planet and the future of my son’s generation when the young people started climate strikes for their Fridays for Future in 2018. Eco-anxiety is on the rise, especially among young people worldwide.”
In September 2021, a global survey of 10,000 young people across 10 countries, published in The Lancet medical journal, found nearly half of those between 16 and 25 reported psychological distress over climate change, with feelings of sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness, betrayal, and guilt, the release stated.
Green care, which is basically a new term for gardening, comes with many benefits for overall physical, mental and social well-being, a fact that is well known in the gardening paradise of Powell River, the release stated. The pollinator patch is meant to increase employee social interaction and to bring awareness to mental health, the importance of pollinators and the alarming loss of biodiversity.
“Building something like a pollinator patch is so simple on the surface, but so deeply rewarding,” stated Martin. “It benefits the ecosystem of the whole community and the health and wellness of the individual.”
