Scoop: Seattle’s Pollinator Pathway

 Seattle artist and designer Sarah Bergmann is making quite a buzz, thanks to the Pollinator Pathway, a project she began in 2008 with the intent of creating more habitat for local bees and other pollinating creatures. If you haven’t heard, the nation’s population of pollinators is plummeting, and the pathway aims to aid their plight by transforming a milelong section of city-owned planting strips into carefully planned groupings of flora—mostly native to the Northwest—designed to attract native bees, butterflies and moths. So far, two gardens have been completed in the pathway, which runs along Columbia Street between two existing green spaces, Seattle University (at 12th Avenue) and Nora’s Woods (at 29th Avenue). In August, this largely volunteer-driven project received a substantial grant from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods to fund the planting of 16 new gardens along the pathway. Several mulching and planting parties (open to the public) are planned throughout October; visit pollinatorpathway.com for details on how to join the hive of helpful activity.