Fall is planting time at the Land Trust! This September and October we continued our multi-year effort to get more native milkweed and other pollinator plants out into Central Oregon communities. Together we are working to boost habitat for Western monarch butterflies and other native pollinators. Highlights include:

Oregon School Yards Program: we donated more than 200 narrowleaf and showy milkweed plants, plus other pollinator plants, to Chiloquin Elementary School. Their plan is to have every child at the school plant a plant. This is part of a multi-year partnership with the Klamath Tribes, Trust for Public Land, Willamette Partnership, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and others. A big thank you to Janelle Emard for helping plan, distribute, and get these plants into the hands of students!

Bend: we partnered with the Deschutes Public Library to hand out milkweed and pollinator plants at a free public giveaway. We also gave away plants to attendees of the Children's Forest of Central Oregon's Discover Nature Festival.

La Pine and Madras: we gave away lots of milkweed and other pollinator plants to attendees of our Paulina Creek Preserve Open House near La Pine and our Priday Ranch Open House near Madras.

Prineville: we partnered with the Crook County Library to hand out milkweed and pollinator plants to local community members. We also partnered with the Crooked River Wetlands Complex to add additional pollinator plants to their native plant garden.

A huge thank you to all our partners for helping us host giveaways or finding homes for plants! Thanks as well to all the local Central Oregonians who have stepped up to help create more habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators! Together we planted around 1,500 new native pollinator plants in our communities that will help monarch butterflies and other pollinators thrive!

Learn more:

• About monarch butterfly conservation.
• How to grow your own pollinator garden.
• About other monarch and pollinator resources.