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Public Lands & Pollinator Conservation:
A citizen science approach
Christian Keeve & Lillian MueckeAmeriCorps VISTA – Parks Department
October 2016
Public Lands for Food Security & Community Gardens
Joint venture between the Parks Department and the Billings Metro VISTA Project with the purpose of:
• Building community by fostering a welcoming and supportive environment for plot owners, workshop participants, and the community at large
• Providing educational opportunities through mentoring, classes, camps, workshops and printed resources
• Reaching low-income citizens through education, empowerment, and access
• Engaging in the local food movement through the locally-sourced production of healthy, fresh produce
Framing the Issue• The USDA defines a food desert as:
“at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more
than 10 miles)”
• Up to 1/3 of Montana residents are at risk of hunger• 12.9% of Billings residents live below the poverty line
Community Gardening Initiative• VISTAs brought on in
February 2014
• Policies and forms developed
• Irrigation system put in• Fence constructed• Compost brought in• Sites tilled• Gardens planted
• 2015• 2956lbs of produce • 37 individual plots,
5 communal• 2016
• ~4500lbs of produce
• 47 individual plots, 7 communal
• Songbird Community Garden scheduled for 2017
Garden-Based Pollinator
Conservation• Mutualism of pollinator approach is central to community gardening• Native plant focus allows for
more permanent fixtures, simultaneously engages
aesthetically and culturally•Opens place-based space for ethnobotany, environmental
history, bioregionalism…
How are food security, pollinator conservation, and
native plant restoration mutually constructive?
How do we use the texture of the urban landscape to
address these inter-connected needs?
How can we move towards a solution that engages with the socio-cultural
landscape as well as the physical one?
Expanding the Promise of Community Gardening
• “Pocket Parks” in conjunction with a pollinator corridor as a way to increase accessibility to fresh foods
• Emphasis on native edible plants for a sense of local environment and longevity
• Placement possibilities in downtown, neighborhoods, trail ways, etc.
