North Carolina is participating in the Great Southeast Pollinator Census for the third year in a row in 2025. I have been happy to serve as the program’s leader in North Carolina since 2023. In Lee County we host garden tours and gardening classes during the Census weekend (this year this will be August 22 and August 23) at the Pollinator Haven Garden at the Extension Office off of Tramway Road. But NC is only one of five states that will be participating this year; Georgia (where it was started), South Carolina, Florida and Alabama will also be counting.

This partnership across the states has picked up international attention. My colleagues and I have just returned from a week-long knowledge-sharing trip to the London Area in the United Kingdom. This experience has brought us closer together and reinvigorated us around the Great Southeast Pollinator Census. But, what does this trip mean for us in Lee County and North Carolina?

Knowledge-Sharing and Collaboration

It was good to compare notes with our research counterparts in the United Kingdom. Sharing and collaborating on our respective projects are how we hone our

Centrifuge tubes make great, gentle bumblebee-capturing devices! We used them to study our fuzzy friends to identify them and then let them go! Photo by Amanda Bratcher

own skills, make sure we are unified in our methods, and see how our data compares. It was amazing to think that back in 2016 and 2017 when Becky Griffin, the creator of the Great Southeast Pollinator Census, was developing the Census program that another researcher, Dr. Claire Carvell at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, came up with a similar protocol for the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (UK PoMS). We are excited to see how our two projects can work together to create an international network and data set.

We also visited the Natural History Museum, RHS Wisley, and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, just to name a few. All of these institutions have amazing community science projects that they are undertaking to better understand pollinators in their communities and engage community members in the process. We got some great ideas from our colleagues, and we’re looking forward to putting them into action at home.

Reflections on Home

I am one of those people who loves to travel (I love to come home too!). I find I learn so many new things and I am able to gain perspective when I go to new places. This makes me more effective at understanding the context and relevance of plants and horticulture at home.

Folks who know me know I love peonies, for example. While we can grow them in North Carolina, they don’t always thrive, and sometimes their flowers can be lackluster if it gets too hot in the spring too fast or we don’t have a consistently cold winter. This could skew your perception of the potential of peonies. It might make you think they are a bad garden plant. Yet, I can tell you at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at Wisley that peonies shine there, despite their dry, sandy soil! So, it isn’t just soil.

So, through my travel experience I know that there is a complex story around our local ecosystem that contributes to our local gardening and farming experience; and there is so much more to the story elsewhere! Comparing our gardening and farming experiences makes us more informed managers, no matter where we are.

Celebrations of Biodiversity are a Call to Action

Just as with traveling across the Pond, our journey in our farm or garden is travel through time and a sense of place. For folks who manage their land they know that it teaches them something every day, every month and every year, and each season is a new experience. Community science projects, like the Great Southeast Pollinator Census and the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, help us channel those lessons so everyone can learn from them.

Biodiversity is one of the most amazing things about life on Earth. There are millions and millions of species of plants, animals, bacteria and fungi, and so much more that we don’t know. As gardeners and farmers, we revel in this bounty of life as a way to enjoy our properties, grow tasty food, and have beautiful gardens. It also works for us to keep our plants growing, the bees flying and the ecosystem functioning.

Recognition

I would like to thank my trip sponsor the Center for Integrated Pest Management at NC State University and Dr. Danesha Seth-Carley. My trip would not have been possible without their funding. I appreciate the support and look forward to the knowledge gained and collaborations made on this trip to serve the communities of North Carolina.

Amanda Bratcher is the Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension in Lee County.