A proposal was sent in 2021 to the Barrie-Huronia Rotary Club for funding a naturalization project with Living Green Barrie. The concept was to plant trees that are known to provide habitat for native pollinators. Trees for Bees supports the City of Barrie’s Bee City designation to protect and create pollinator habitats, provide community education, and celebrate our pollinators.
Trees for Bees took on the challenge of bringing back habitats for the native pollinators in Barrie. Trees planted in urban areas face significant challenges that impede their growth and survival, including soil compaction, limited moisture due to improper watering, and physical damage from lawn maintenance equipment. Public parks often remove naturalized areas that are crucial for pollinators because of the perception that they look unkempt, and decide on a manicured lawn instead.
This project needed to strike a balance between improving tree health and survival by protecting the tree’s root zone and stem, as well as create a space for the pollinator plants, while also creating a visually appealing pollinator habitat.
Over a dozen members of the Barrie-Huronia Rotary Club, Living Green and Pollinate Barrie assembled to install three “Trees for Bees” pollinator pods at Batteaux Park. The pods were designed to both improve and support tree health. The pods feature a hexagonal frame that looks like wood, but are actually made of recycled plastic lumber in a turfgrass field with early spring flowers and an Ontario native tree in the center. The frames keep these natural areas contained, with clear edges and boundaries to mitigate damage from lawn maintenance.
The flowering trees are native to Ontario, and the chosen flowers are vital first-food for newly emerging pollinators like birds, bats, butterflies, bees, and other insects. With the nearby community garden, the local plants also help with growing fruits and vegetables that require pollination. The choice of flowering trees and plants were picked for people and pollinators alike to enjoy!
Every year for 30 years, The Rotary Club of Barrie Huronia shops for approximately 70 families who need a little help at Christmas. The families come from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Barrie & District, Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie, and a few local churches.
Our goal with The Christmas Hamper was to provide help to as many families as possible during the holiday season. In recent years, we saw rising food costs, reduced funding as a club, and an increased need from the community that grows every year. When grocery stores went into lockdown, we discovered that the way we bought food for the families had to be changed. Despite these challenges, our goal remained the same to provide families with Christmas presents, a food card for a week’s worth of food as well as a turkey and a ham.
Our partners at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Barrie & District, Women and Children’s Shelter of Barrie, and Candlelighters/Grankins connected us with families in need, while maintaining the anonymity of these families. Using ideas from parents and grandparents of the children, our Rotarians and other generous individuals picked out Christmas gifts with each child in mind.
With the support and generous donations of individuals in our community, as well as funds raised throughout the year to purchase food cards, The Christmas Hamper was able to give 70 families a little helping hand for the holidays, as well as providing a week’s worth of food.
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