David Suzuki Foundation now recruiting Butterflyway Rangers from across Canada

TORONTO — The David Suzuki Foundation is recruiting keen volunteers from throughout Canada to take part in the award-winning Butterflyway Project as “Butterflyway Rangers.” The project aims to reimagine gardens, lawns, roadsides, parks and schoolyards as neighbourhood-wide networks of habitat for wild bees and butterflies, fueled by the enthusiasm and ingenuity of local Rangers.

“We are looking for community-builders, storytellers, nature lovers, schemers and dreamers to become the next troop of Butterflyway Rangers,” said Butterflyway Project lead Jode Roberts. “Rangers will receive online training and ongoing guidance on how to recruit friends and neighbours to help bring wild bees and butterflies back to their neighbourhoods, one fun wildflower planting at a time.”

Over the past four years, hundreds of Butterflyway Rangers from Victoria, British Columbia to Valley, Nova Scotia have established native wildflower plantings in yards, balconies, parks and schools throughout their neighbourhoods. The plantings provide habitat to support local insects like wild bees and butterflies, while making the neighbourhoods greener, healthier and wilder.

Until February 5, residents will be able to apply to become official Butterflyway Rangers. Participants will receive free online Ranger training, official Ranger T-shirts and Butterflyway garden signs, plus ongoing support from David Suzuki Foundation staff and the existing community of more than 1,000 Rangers trained since 2017.

“Despite the uncertainty of the pandemic, last year our amazing community of Rangers made magic happen by inspiring their friends and neighbours to take action and getting tons of pollinator-friendly wildflowers into the ground,” said BC Butterflyway Project lead, Winnie Hwo. “We can’t wait to see what magic Rangers can conjure in 2021.”

The Butterflyway Project is proudly supported by national partners Nature’s Way, Cascades and Monarch Nation. For more information about the Butterflyway Project, visit www.davidsuzuki.org/butterflyway.

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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Jode Roberts, David Suzuki Foundation: jroberts@davidsuzuki.org, 647.456.9752
Winnie Min Yue Hwo, David Suzuki Foundation: winnie@davidsuzuki.org, 778.866.6371

About: The David Suzuki Foundation (davidsuzuki.org) is a leading Canadian environmental non-profit organization. The Foundation has offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The Butterflyway Project is an award-winning national campaign to create pollinator habitat in communities throughout Canada.

BACKGROUNDER

About the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project

  • The David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project launched in 2017 in Toronto, Markham, Richmond and Victoria, and in Montreal as l’effet papillon
  • In the first four years, 1,008 project volunteers have planted 54,000+ native wildflowers in 1,000+ pollinator patches in 100+ communities
  • Official Butterflyways have been established in Toronto, Markham, Richmond, Victoria, Scarborough, District of North Vancouver, Vancouver, Calgary, Collingwood, Ottawa, Halton Hills and Winnipeg
  • The Butterflyway Project won the 2020 Nature Inspiration Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature and is based on the Homegrown National Park Project (2013-2016)

Select stories from Butterflyway Rangers in 2020:

  • Ranger Katherine recruited 51 households to join the Halton Hills Butterflyway, planting hundreds of wildflowers in parks and at town hall
  • Rangers Patrick and Melissa knocked on hundreds of doors in Vancouver’s Point Grey neighbourhood, handing out brochures made at a local school and convincing 60 neighbours to plant butterfly gardens
  • In Calgary, Ranger David recruited his neighbourhood association to help establish the Beddington Butterflyway, Alberta’s first official Butterflyway, which included wildflower-filled planters and 30 home gardens
  • Ranger Dorte and the Cliffcrest Butterflyway team in Scarborough grew more than 1,000 native wildflowers from seeds and distributed them to neighbours and local schools
  • Winnipeg Rangers established more than 30 Butterflyway gardens in schools, yards and parks in partnership with the Winnipeg Wildflower Project and Manitoba Master Gardeners
  • Ranger Jessica and her crew created a new organization, Pollinate Collingwood, and established two dozen new pollinator plantings in their Ontario town
  • Ranger Julie in Markham, Ontario, ordered wildflower kits from a local native plant nursery for more than a dozen friends and neighbours, and organized safe plant pickups from her porch and online garden tours
  • Keen Rangers in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Markham and Toronto, Ontario, all dug into their mission to plant native wildflowers, transforming their entire front yards into butterfly sanctuaries
  • Ranger Karen made 28 Butterflyway classroom presentations and partnered with classes and a local youth group to plant butterfly gardens in Riverview, New Brunswick
  • Rangers Dani and Shiri went to work at their workplaces, establishing pollinator and food gardens at their Toronto offices, and Ranger Carey provided free native wildflowers for her company’s clients in Winnipeg and Calgary

For more information, visit www.davidsuzuki.org/butterflyway or contact: Jode Roberts, David Suzuki Foundation: jroberts@davidsuzuki.org, 647.456.9752 @joderoberts