Pollinators & Produce: Pollinator Habitats and Food Security in Baltimore

The Vision

For more than a decade, the National Wildlife Federation and our Baltimore community partners have been working together to build a more equitable future for wildlife and people.

BLISS Meadows Farmhouse garden after installation. Credit: Lindsey Walker

Our most recent project, Pollinators and Produce, has created essential wildlife habitat and enhanced sustainable, local food production through the installation of pollinator gardens at various urban farms in East and Northeast Baltimore.

The Pollinators and Produce projects were intentionally designed with organizations and leaders on the ground to address environmental injustices by focusing on communities where access to healthy food and revitalizing vacant land are top priorities.

With funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Chesapeake Small Watershed Grant, over the last two years NWF and our partners have been able to exceed our initial goal and install ten pollinator gardens at six urban agricultural sites-most of which are on formerly vacant lots in Baltimore City.

These gardens boost native plant communities, enhance local food security, and help restore habitat and water quality. Through hosting community education workshops and supporting voluntary community-based restoration efforts, the Pollinators and Produce project has also developed strategies that will inform future conservation efforts.

The impact of these projects has already extended beyond the immediate sites. As part of the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps, Ciara O'Brien used her time with the National Wildlife Federation to create a comprehensive resource guide for urban farmers eager to embrace native pollinators as partners in sustainable food production.

Environmental and Community Benefits

The Pollinators and Produce gardens provide much-needed wildlife habitats to pollinators and creating a pollinator corridor in a hyperlocal urban area, helping native wildlife thrive. The native plants will also filter and absorb rainfall, decreasing polluted stormwater and flooding, and ultimately improve the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The gardens provide community members with additional green space and access to nearby nature.

As part of the Pollinators and Produce Project, signs are installed to educate communities on the benefits of pollinator gardens. Credit: Lindsey Walker/NWF

Pollinators are animals like bees, bats, moths, butterflies, and birds who spread pollen from plant to plant, providing a valuable service that supports healthy fruit and vegetable crops, and serving as important contributors to a healthy local ecosystem.

Native plants are the backbone of the entire pollination process, providing essential habitats and food sources for native pollinators. Pollinators and Produce uses these native plants to support biodiversity and environmental resilience.

The National Wildlife Federation is also proud to provide a Native Plant Finder to connect communities to zip code specific native plants and support their conservation efforts.

Community Partners

Our four community partners are deeply involved in their communities working to restore vacant lots, spread environmental education, maintain urban greenspaces, create sustainable urban agriculture, and restore habitats.

Backyard Basecamp Backyard Basecamp provides environmental education to connect and reconnect Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to land and nature in Baltimore.

The 6^th Branch As a veteran-led community development non-profit, The 6^th Branch is committed to the transformation and management of vacant land through community service and volunteer work.

Your Baltimore Community Development Corporation (YBCDC) YBCDC is a non-profit operating the Bethel Farm Lab, providing healthy food in a health food priority area.

Greener Garden A for-profit certified naturally grown farm, Greener Garden is one of the oldest urban farms in Baltimore. Greener Garden provides healthy food for community members and educates neighbors about sustainable gardening and climate change.

Key: The Greener Garden, Bethel Farm Lab (YBCDC), BLISS Meadows (BB), T6B

The Sites

Backyard Basecamp received three new native pollinator gardens, including a welcome garden at their newly renovated farmhouse, a mini-meadow next to their honeybee apiary, and an experimental woodland garden in 1,000 square foot section of open canopy space.

Planting the apiary garden, the freshly planted farmhouse garden, and preparing the woodland garden site for fall planting. Credit: NWF staff

The Sixth Branch collaborated to install new pollinator gardens at their urban farm sites: Oliver Community Farm, Johnston Square Farm, and the Broadway East Tree & Berry Farm.

Planting at Oliver Community Farm and Broadway East Tree Farm & Nursery; native plant container garden giveaway at Faith Lane. Credit: NWF staff

The Greener Garden received three small native pollinator gardens, including a welcome garden, small raised beds next to their hoophouses, and four rows in open field space.

Hoophouse gardens one year after planting. Credit: NWF staff Welcome garden before and one year after planting. Credit: NWF staff

Your Baltimore CDC supported the installation of one garden at their Bethel Farm Lab site.

Meet the Pollinators

Pollinators are the unsung heroes of our gardens, fields, and farms.

Globally, tens of thousands of invertebrates-including bees, butterflies, beetles, moths, wasps, and flies-and more than a thousand mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians take on the job of pollinating plants.

This biodiverse group of wildlife buzzes, flutters, and creeps from plant to plant, dining on protein-rich pollen and high-energy nectar. As they move, they transport and deposit pollen, fertilizing plants and allowing those plants to reproduce.

Learn more about different types of pollinators HERE!

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