MOLOA‘A — Thanks to a grant from the American Forest Foundation, a farm and non-profit organization, Retro Farms, is offering an educational program for all students on Kaua‘i on the importance of pollination; the foundation of sustainable agriculture. Pollinator in
MOLOA‘A — Thanks to a grant from the American Forest Foundation, a farm and non-profit organization, Retro Farms, is offering an educational program for all students on Kaua‘i on the importance of pollination; the foundation of sustainable agriculture.
Pollinator in Paradise is a program designed to teach the importance of pollinators and create a critical habitat for pollinators on island, said Mary Ellen Houston, director of Retro Farms.
Comprised of 14 acres on the North Shore, Retro Farms is owned and managed by directors Mary Ellen Houston and Aaron Pearlman, who have dedicated the land to agriculture, and to planting native pollinator plants. These plants — for example, the native white hibiscus waimeae — attract bees, bats, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and more, which are natural pollinators.
“It starts with the littlest creatures you might be swatting away; those little creatures are important to our livelihood,” Pearlman said.
“The bees fly into a flower and they have these little pockets on the back of their legs where they collect it; you’ll see their legs get full of pollen,” Houston said of the process. Bees are the hardest-working pollinators: a single bee can visit up to 240 flowers in one trip, according to a pollinator field journal Houston will use with students in her education program this fall.
“There are male plants and female plants, and separate they can not generate,” Pearlman said, adding that the pollinator insects pick up pollen as they visit flower to flower and transfer it to other flowers. “Once the flower is pollinated it can produce fruit … without pollinators we don’t have any food.”
The pollinators are crucial to the food sustainability goal many are supporting and currently trying to achieve on island and across the globe. Furthermore, pollinators need help.
“We are losing pollinators at an alarming rate due to land development, pollution and pesticide poisoning,” Houston said, adding that the pollinator garden at Retro Farms doesn’t “solve the problem, but is a step in the right direction.”
After receiving a grant from the American Forest Foundation under the Project Learning Tree program, Retro Farms will start working with schools on Kaua‘i to teach their “Pollinators in Paradise” program in the schools and at their farm. Houston and Pearlman will go into the classrooms of the schools who sign up for the program-which is free-and will teach the students about pollinators through a series of lesson plans. They will also pick out a pollinator plant to grow.
“The classroom will be the initial nursery,” Houston said. “Then they will be transferred to The Mighty Seed Learning Center at Retro Farms to where the kids will plant them.” The program is designed for all grades, with different lesson plans for different grades. Houston is a PLT certified instructor.
PLT is the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation, but here in Hawai‘i it is sponsored by the Department of Land and Natural Resources in the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and the Hawai’i Nature Center, according to a press release from the DLNR.
The Pollinators in Paradise program at Retro Farms is the first of five “Open Air Learning Huts” to be offered for students on Kaua‘i. In the future they hope to implement a coastal observation hut where students can study whale migration and sea birds, as well as a sustainable hardwood farming learning hut where students will learn geometry and algebra by measuring the shadows of the trees. Currently Retro Farms has tree farms of milo, mahogany and mango, which are also pollinator flora, according to Houston.
“Retro Farms is an area schools can use as a resource for field trips and outside projects,” Houston said, clarifying Retro Farms is not a full-time school but a community resource for children. “The whole goal is to connect kids to nature; this is for the kids of Kaua‘i.”
Retro Farms currently has schools signed up for the Pollinators in Paradise program starting this fall, but encourages more schools and teachers to participate. To sign up students or for more information, e-mail retrofarms@gmail.com or call 775-830-6948.
