A group of people want to give butterfly friendly gardens a boost in Saugeen Shores.
Recently retired Terry Wilson made a presentation to council Monday about the Butterfly Way Project, which is part of the David Suzuki Foundation. It creates habitats for butterflies and bees across Canada.
He and a group of people want to fix up previously planted, existing butterfly gardens and educate people about building their own.
Wilson says there are butterfly gardens in town, but explained they have gone unmaintained after those who cared for them stopped for various reasons, including moving out of province. Others are still being maintained by volunteers who have been bringing in plants, putting in mulch and watering the gardens.
“We want to help those people who have been doing that work,” said Wilson, adding, “That’s our first goal is to take on those gardens and get them back”
“We’re simply reinvigorating what was there, what has been left alone and we can do it at a very low cost,” said Wilson.
They’re also creating an inventory of local butterfly gardens and volunteers.
He said, “We’ve catalogued the gardens in a fair amount of detail,” noting the Southampton Rotary Club gave them a donation and they now have about 60 plants and shrubs from them. The horticultural society also donated some plants. “We have about 90 plants that we can work with already. We’re going to prioritize the best locations,”
Wilson said in 2025 they’ll get some gardens going again, for example the garden at the end of High Street in Southampton by the flag pole is going to be a priority.
They want council to allow them to work on gardens that are on Town land. They also want some communications and promotions help with things like signs and also correcting old web pages and addresses.
Wilson requested, “Just going forward, as the Town approaches any projects it’s doing, maybe in the spring, starting gardens is to really consider putting in native plants that are healthy for the pollinators and the habitats related to that. It just starts the trend that we don’t have to reverse later if those things are a part of the mandate.”
In 2026 they want to expand and work with people who volunteer to have pollinator gardens at their homes and want to maintain them. They’d be able to advise people about what to plant.
He said they’ve spoken to numerous groups that have connections to the butterfly gardens like the horticultural society, rotary club, MacGregor Point Provincial Park, and the rail trail association.
Councillors spoke optimistically about the plans and the effort, with some noting they’d like to volunteer either their time or even some plants.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau commented the community is fortunate to have volunteers like this group. He also supported the idea of using native plants, so that they will survive easily and not need much care, in case there is ever an absence of volunteers to tend to the gardens.
Council referred the presentation to staff who will bring recommendations back for them to decide on.
“I think it’s really smart, the way you’re approaching that and I think it’s going to bear real dividends for us and the community down the road,” said Charbonneau.
