Licking County Pollinator Pathway

09/08/2026

Monarch alert! The pollinator garden at Licking Heights Local Schools' High School is thriving into September. Upon closer look, we found monarch caterpillars feasting on butterfly milkw**d. Students designed and planted the peace pole & pollinator garden themselves and incorporated native plants that bloom maroon and gold for school pride. A great example of what's possible when students, teachers, administrators, Pataskala OH Rotary Club and Licking County Pollinator Pathway work together!

08/19/2026

PSA: Please keep an eye out for caterpillars while w**ding! While pulling up unwanted vines from a foundation bed, a resident found over a dozen monarch butterfly caterpillars! Did you know that honeyvine (Cynanchum leave) is also a host plant for monarchs? It’s a “climbing” milkw**d in the dogbane family and a host plant for the monarch. Because a lot of this honeyvine had already been removed (and thus removing the food source for these picky eaters) Pollinator Pathway volunteers moved some of the caterpillars onto a neighboring property that had butterfly milkw**d and swamp milkw**d. So, please keep an eye out for this "w**d" as it may be feeding endangered monarchs!

08/10/2026

We LOVE seeing the Pollinator Pathway sign pop up across the county, including at Foundation Park in downtown Newark! The Licking County Foundation's newly-planted pollinator garden will fill in over time and bloom in the future with wild petunia, butterfly milkw**d, pale purple coneflower, threadleaf bluestar, lanceleaf coreopsis, purple prairie clover and many more native flowers and shrubs. We love this investment in the future for the pollinators and people that call Licking County home! The newly expanded garden at Foundation Park was designed & installed by Ohio Native Concepts LLC

08/07/2026

08/07/2026

THIS is what community partnerships look like! Granville Kiwanis had an idea: what if we planted a pollinator garden? That question turned into a true community effort. Granville Area Chamber of Commerce connected Kiwanis with Licking County Pollinator Pathway who helped select plants and create a design; Master Gardener Volunteers of Licking County OSUE helped to grow and source some of the plants and Granville Recreation District helped find a space at Wildwood Park. Kiwanis volunteers planted the plot in spring 2025 and watered, w**ded, and watched it grow. The result? Take a look! This plot burst into bloom and is humming with pollinators!

07/27/2026

What a beautiful morning at the Land Lab! Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Meadows for Monarchs Project Learning Landscapes Tour. We are immensely grateful to Jim Reding and the Granville Schools Sustainability Project for sharing the vision and history behind this incredible ~100-acre outdoor classroom, and to Dr. Karen Goodell for leading a hands-on training on how to use iNaturalist to support scientific research and to document more about the plants and pollinators on our properties. We were joined by participants in the Meadows for Monarchs Project, folks from Otterbein Granville SeniorLife Community as well as educators and administrators from several school districts in the region, all thinking through how their own campuses can be used as outdoor classrooms and labs.

The Meadows for Monarchs Project helps schools, organizations and individual property owners in Licking County convert ordinary turfgrass into high quality habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. If you are interested in creating a meadow on your property, consider enrolling! Learn more here: https://www.lickingpollinatorpathway.org/meadows

07/24/2026

Happy National Moth Week!

07/23/2026

Here's another amazing love note we received: "I just wanted to send a few pictures of my dad’s front flower bed.... I planted purple coneflower, mountain mint, anise hyssop, Indian grass, and showy tick trefoil. Today my daughter and I w**ded and planted some black eyed Susan’s and bergamot. After tidying everything up we were greeted my a beautiful monarch. Continue the great work! I’m working on my dad to allow me to reduce his lawn further and add more natives." LOVE THIS!

07/20/2026

Growing a native landscape is both challenging and rewarding. Talking about it with neighbors, responding to HOA concerns, or explaining why your yard looks different can ALSO be challenging and rewarding. This upcoming webinar is all about communicating and creating "cues to care." It's free!