Young students from Children’s House Montessori School gathered around a round rock garden in Memorial Park on a rainy Earth Day last week to help place plants in a new garden that will benefit the bees.

Jen Sybrant, urban forestry and landscape foreman for the City of Whitefish Parks Department, says the pollinator garden will house a new sign for Memorial Park and fits in with the goal of incorporating more native plants into the city parks landscapes to create an ecosystem between the pollinator garden and the nearby Whitefish High School gardens. The hope is to provide citizens with a happy place to visit and give needed nutrients to native bees and butterflies that are declining due to the decline of pollinator plants they need to survive, she noted.

“Pollinator gardens support and maintain pollinators by supplying food in the form of pollen and nectar that will ensure that our important animals stay in the area to keep pollinating our crops for continued fruit and vegetable production,” she said. “Bees are vital for the preservation of ecological balance and biodiversity in nature. I hope this garden helps preserve our local bees for years to come.”