Thursday, March 28, 2024

The bee’s knees: Victoria International Airport has a new garden with a crucial purpose

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The Victoria International Airport has a new addition to help the pollinator population of the Peninsula grow and thrive.  

The pollinator garden is a collaborative project between the Victoria Airport Authority (VAA) and Pollinator Partnership Canada. 

The space used for the garden is along Willingdon Road next to a digital billboard in an area that was once home to a thriving Garry oak meadow. The meadow hosted a teeming, rich biodiversity that has since faded. 

This specific area of land held significant importance to the W̱SÁNEĆ People. With that in mind, this new garden will pay homage to the importance of native plant species and the areas original ecosystem.

“When we released our Sustainability Plan in 2021, one of the highlighted initiatives was to work towards meeting the Aichi Biodiversity targets adopted by the United Nations,”  said Ken Gallant, Vice President of the Victoria Airport Authority.

“We have worked with non-profit, government, industry, business, and First Nations partners to develop projects that will enhance and align with the rest of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Goals.”  

Bees boast the title of ‘most effective pollinators’ and BC has over 450 species of the friendly insects. 

Without them pollination would not occur on the same scale as it does now, plants would die off and the entire food chain would be detrimentally affected. 

This new pollinator garden will assist the ecosystem, plant-life cycles and local food chains by having native plants support native bee populations. 

Over 2,000 plants will be planted within the pollinator garden space, almost a quarter acre. Being that the garden is still so young and fresh, many plants will remain dormant until the springtime. 

mm
Curtis Blandy
curtis@victoriabuzz.com

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