To raise awareness of pollinators’ importance and prevent other species from experiencing a decline like the monarch’s, the Tennessee Aquarium has partnered with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to launch Pollinator Pathway, a new self-guided experience on the Aquarium plaza.
As they explore the Aquarium campus, visitors will encounter permanent signage describing pollinators’ incredible behaviors, highlighting unexpected pollinators, and showing ways to make your home more pollinator-friendly. Visitors will also learn about the Aquarium’s involvement in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program dedicated to monarch butterflies.
“The most important thing about the Monarch SAFE program is that people now realize the plight of the monarch butterfly and how important that is,” says Kevin Calhoon, the Aquarium’s curator of forests.
“A lot of people have seen monarchs their whole lives and don’t think much about them, but when they start disappearing, you really realize how important they are to the environment and how much of a shame it would be not to see them anymore.”
The Tennessee Aquarium joins more than 100 AZA-certified institutions and non-profits as a participant in the Monarch SAFE program. However, with Chattanooga located directly along the Monarchs’ migration path, it’s even more meaningful to share ways to help them here at home, Calhoon says.
“The most important thing is getting the word out there that they need our help,” he says. “The SAFE program is a true link between the zoo world and what you can do in your own backyard. Making pollination areas and planting flowers to support Monarchs is something you can do at your home.”
The Pollinator Pathway signs feature QR codes that take visitors to versions with Spanish-language messaging.
During Pollinator Week, guests at the Aquarium can take advantage of appearances by organizations partnering in its pro-pollination push.
On June 22, 23, and 25, McKee Foods will offer free samples of Sunbelt granola bars with special pollinator packaging. On June 24, TDOT representatives will hand out Pollinator Bingo Cards and provide information about Project Milkweed. This flowering plant is native to Tennessee and is vital to the life cycle of monarch butterflies.
Visitors making their way to Chattanooga this summer may already have encountered pollinator-friendly messaging and planted areas at Tennessee welcome centers as part of the state’s Pollinator Habitat Program. These pollinator-centric projects grew out of language in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. When it was passed in 2015, this legislation called on state departments of transportation to preserve pollinator habitat along rights-of-way.
“That’s something we took very seriously and developed into this multi-faceted program,” says Mike McClanahan, highway beautification manager for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
To amplify the state’s pro-pollinator messaging, TDOT entered a two-year partnership with the Aquarium. The Pollinator Pathway is the first initiative of that cooperation.
“The Aquarium is really a natural partner for TDOT. It’s such a great educational resource,” McClanahan says. “By adding our messaging to the Aquarium’s effort with the Pollinator Pathway, it will help both of us to reach more people.”
Polli
, the department’s adorable spokes-bee, appears on signage along the pathway to make observations and offer up suggestions. Those who need more of Polli’s insights can visit her at her digital hive on TDOT’s Pollinator Habitat Program. This site also includes six animated short videos featuring a kid-friendly explanation of pollination hosted by Polli.
At the Aquarium, visitors can gain greater insights into (and make memories with) the role pollinators play worldwide, from the rhododendrons and coneflowers and other native plants in the Appalachian cove forest areas to getting an up-close view of one of the world’s largest pollinators, the red-ruffed lemur, in Lemur Forest.
And no adventure from the mountains to the sea would be complete without visiting the Aquarium’s Butterfly Garden, where 1,500 butterflies representing dozens of species are just waiting to perch on a nearby shoulder, hand, or head for that ideal Instagram post. 