OurEcho Challenge: Team Springtails

As a winner of the 2021 OurEcho Challenge, my team Springtails received a grant for our project to address the decline of insect species, specifically pollinators, through habitat enhancement, increased native vegetation, the adoption of organic practices, and phenological observations at the bank of the Mystic River. Here is an overview of our project.

We were successfully able to create a wildflower habitat with native plants and grow Swamp Milkweed which serves as the host plant for the larvae of the endangered Monarch Butterfly. We observed a female Monarch Butterfly visiting the Swamp Milkweed and depositing her eggs on carefully selected leaves. A colony of Brown-belted Bumble Bees established itself in a tree stump and a colony of Common Eastern Bumble Bees established itself under a residential deck. When the Joe Pye Weeds that we planted bloomed, they provided a good source of nectar for the Common Eastern Bumble Bees. We observed the growth of native plants, the arrival of pollinators, and the interconnectedness of species on a daily basis. In 2021, we documented and photographed over 350 species of arthropods, birds, and mammals in and around the habitat, highlighting the great biodiversity which exists around us.

Appreciate Biodiversity

Inspired by the positive impacts of our project, we reached out to the community. I co-founded the organization Appreciate Biodiversity, along with my brother Arav. We have been documenting biodiversity in our area (Massachusetts) and have created an educational leaflet ‘Biodiversity in your Backyard’ to encourage the community to create pollinator and wildlife-friendly habitats in their own yards by leaving the leaves, planting native plants, and switching to ecofriendly-minded landscaping practices.