Gardening for Wildlife means protecting the creek!

May is garden for wildlife month…..and that fits perfectly with our initiatives in Mountain Creek Watershed!  We are partnering with the Chattanooga Area Pollinator Partnership (https://chapollinator.org )and Red Bank Elementary with a nice grant from Tennessee American Water Company to create a pollinator flyway down the Mountain Creek valley to the Tennessee River.  It is our hope that our flyway will connect to the incredible area protected by the Tennessee River Gorge Trust to create an unimpeded connection to the River Gorge.  How? We are working to map and connect all of the parks and wetlands (thanks, Bill Raines!) and native plant gardens in everyone’s back yards (Check out the info from the national wildlife federation: https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create/At-Home ) along with the stream buffer zone corridor.  We need everyone’s help! Add native plants and reduce pesticide usage to encourage our pollinators! Let us know if you want to have your gardens as part of the flyway for birds and butterflies and other pollinators. You should also get your yard certified as a creek protecting yard (Check out www.mytn.org)! Let’s have MOUNTAIN CREEK be the first of many protected connectors for our pollinators!