Did you know that June 21 – 27 is National Pollinator Week? Here’s an explanation from the National Pollinator Week website, about the importance of the animals and insects that act as pollinators:

“Three years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of the final week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations…. Pollinating animals, including bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles and others, are vital to our delicate ecosystem, supporting terrestrial wildlife, providing healthy watershed, and more. Therefore, Pollinator Week is a week to get the importance of pollinators’ message out to as many people as possible.
It’s not too early to start thinking about an event at your school, garden, church, store, etc. Pollinators positively effect all our lives- let’s SAVE them and CELEBRATE them!”

You can visit a Pollinator Garden here in Arlington – at the Glencarlyn Branch Library, Central Library, or the Columbia Pike Branch Library – and see bees and butterflies hard at work.

You can also see photos of our gardens on flickr, or take a short video tour of Central Library’s Pollinator Garden:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN5KNHCE-yQ]