A Connectivity Corridor, Pollinator Garden, and Butterflies - Part 2

by Dianne Keller

Hydaspe Fritillary (Speyeria hydaspe), Rob Santry, July 3, 2021

Alarming research published this spring in Science showed that over the past two decades the total number of butterflies in the United States plummeted on average by 22%. Amid this troubling news local property owner Mark Newberger won NABA’s 2024 nation-wide Butterfly Garden of the Year contest.  

Part I of this series detailed the characteristics of Mark’s 40 acres on Mt. Ashland, including its location at the eastern end of the Siskiyou Crest connectivity corridor, a high elevation land bridge providing flora and fauna with migration and dispersal passage.  

Mark’s management strategy since acquiring his property in 2014 has been to protect and promote the ecological values of the land.  By 2016, a conservation easement was put into place. (Southern Oregon Land Conservancy 2024).  That same year he started the ground work for construction of a wildflower garden.

Creating a Pollinator Garden

The first step in creating this pollinator garden was building granite walls and paths which involved moving a lot of dirt around. With hardscaping underway, Mark enlisted the expertise of Suzie  Savoie of Klamath Siskiyou Native Seeds.  He understood she had a strong dedication to sustainability and ecological integrity, promoting the use of bioregional, localized genetic seed stock. She gathered local wildflower seeds July through October of 2016 focusing on all the native species along the Siskiyou Crest that grew in the 5,500-foot elevation range, give or take 1,000 feet. Seven pounds of clean seeds from 58 different species were collected. 

The next step was sowing the seeds. A little research on Mark’s part revealed seed application through hydro-mulching had shown good results on steep, erosive, granitic soil. In mid-October, Suzie’s wildflower seeds were suspended in a water/paper slurry and sprayed across the ground in several locations. 

With hardscaping completed, the ground was ready for planting, Suzie Savoie August 11, 2016

Starting with bare ground reduced early competition with non-natives, but like in any garden not yet established, extensive weeding was required. Native and non-native seedlings are very hard to tell apart, so for the first few years, Suzie, on hands and knees, carefully inspected each new start before pulling the unwanted.  It was a huge job. She recognized a maintenance plan was needed so others could participate in upkeep. She wrote a guide identifying 21 herbaceous invasive species, including photos, bloom times, best control methods, and special considerations for each.

Some species including balsamroot, mule’s ears, and lomatium, take several years to put down deep roots before showing much above-ground growth, resulting in a total of five to seven years before blooming.  Short-lived perennials like lupine, Oregon sunshine and coyote mint can bloom as early as the second year of growth.  With the latter strategy, in two to three years new plants have taken hold from self-sowing before the original plant dies, resulting in the species moving around to areas it prefers. A few species like some milkweeds and lupines arrived already established in pots so they provided splashes of color that first summer.  

Photo of garden, Kristina Lefever, June 30, 2020

Property Connectivity

By July 2020, four years had passed since the garden had been seeded and many plants had started to mature and were blooming. A variety of butterflies and bees found the garden and were abuzz in their activities. Mark experienced a real eye opener when a huge group of digger bees established themselves in the sandy soil next to the flowers.  

Digger bees are a species of solitary bees that move from site to site in large aggregations one year to the next. They don’t settle until they find the right combination of appropriate soil texture and a large, stable population of suitable pollen-bearing plants. Obviously, they had found what they needed at Mark’s Pollinator Garden. (Gillette 2024)

Digger Bee in Mark's Garden, with another digger bee's nest hole on left, Mark Newberger, summer 2022

Outreach and Education

Mark always intended his property to be a resource for the community. His son-in-law enjoyed cutting out an extensive trail system that looped around through the property, emphasizing areas which are of botanical, biological, and geological interest. 

When the garden tour that Pollinator Project Rogue Valley (PPRV) had planned cancelled due to Covid, Suzie decided to make a virtual tour video. On a beautiful day in June, she took Kristina Lefever of PPRV with her to the garden. It was the first time Kristina had seen it and she was blown away.  She told me:

“Just the fact that somebody would think to do something like this on such a large scale….  have so many native plants and so many native pollinators……  To see …… the real thing was inspiring; it was like you can do what we talk about in a real way.  It is a great teaching tool.”  (Kristina Lefever 2024)

The video that Suzie created documents the project‘s success and highlights how naturescaping with natives can bring not only beauty to a property, but also that the increase in native plant diversity provides the critical habitat to increase pollinator and wildlife populations. 

The public can now experience the ecological values of the property through participation in scheduled events through such organizations as Pollinator Project Rogue Valley, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, Southern Oregon Native Plant Society, and the Siskiyou Crest Coalition. Suzie herself has provided several wildflower talks and tours, as well as seed collection workshops.

Suzie Savoie in Mark’s Pollinator Garden talking about native plants and the species of insects that depend on them, Kristina Lefever, June 29, 2024

A new workshop with Suzie is scheduled for July 6, 2025 is Wild Inspiration: Observing Nature for Native Plant Garden Design.

First Place Winner of Butterfly Garden of the Year Contest

The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) announced their garden of the year contest spring of 2024 with the intent of highlighting spectacular butterfly gardens throughout North America. Applicants’ gardens were to be judged on how well their space was being used to support butterflies, focusing on the presence of native plants to offer nectar sources throughout the season and provide caterpillar food sources. Furthermore, managing a garden with butterflies in mind needed to include avoiding pesticides and leaving spent plant material to over-winter in planting beds.  

When I showed Mark the contest announcement he said, “Let’s do it.”  Then with confidence he said, “We can win this.” He knew his landscaping and maintenance program included the very practices upon which all gardens were to be judged. 

The specialness of Mark’s property was confirmed with NABA’s announcement: Mark Newberger, first place winner, Lana Edwards Garden of the Year contest, private garden category.  

Front cover of Butterfly Gardener magazine, Garden of the Year Contest Issue, cover photo of Mark’s pollinator garden with home in background, winter 2024

Part III – coming soon

Learn how the various habitats on Mark’s property provide sustenance for resident as well as visiting butterflies.

Literature Cited

Gillette, Barbara. 7/30/24. If You’re Noticing Small Mounds in Your Garden, You May Have Digger Bees, www.thespruce.com/what-are-digger-bees-8673901

Mergenthaler, Kristi. 2018. Siskiyou Summit: Newberger Baseline Documentation Report.  Southern Oregon Land Conservancy.