Pollinator Partnership has been working in Ohio since 2010 to raise awareness about the plight of pollinators. In 2015, with support from the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, Monarch Wings Across Ohio was born. Concentrated in Northeast Ohio, Monarch Wings Across Ohio is an innovative program that is researching the best methods for restoring monarch habitat in urban areas, gardens, corporate lands and agricultural lands.

In its first year, Monarch Wings Across Ohio restored many degraded areas in urban settings, creating monarch gardens where Pollinator Partnership scientists conduct research on pollinator visitation rates. The ultimate goal of this research is to establish regional planting guidelines for Northeast Ohio. Once research protocols are finalized in Ohio, this research will be repeated in different regions across the country. The coalition of partners is still growing, and Monarch Wings Across Ohio hopes to continue to add partners as it moves into the second year of this five-year project. Monarch Wings Across Ohio will continue to conduct research on existing gardens, as well as continue to install new gardens with the help of the community.

It plans on increasing its education/outreach efforts by revamping its website, creating grow programs, and adding citizen science into its research and outreach. Ohio is just the start for this program, and Pollinator Partnership plans to continue its work with different partners in states across the country (Galea 2016). More information can be accessed at: <www.pollinator.org/monarchs.htm>.

• Mary Galea. 2016. Pollinator Partnership, Plant Ecologist. Personal communication.

Keywords: gardening