A haven for people and pollinators: Muscatine to establish a 16-acer pollinator park.
Koch, who directs the city of Muscatine’s Water Pollution Control Plant, thinks about plants often in the course of his job.
Plants, he said, soak up water and prevent floods.
“I’ve been working a lot with pollinators and grasses and native flowers and we have a lot of them growing around the treatment plant here, so I just kind of said, ‘boy, this would be a great opportunity to have a really large area where people want to go,’” he said, noting that the 16-acre plot is near a bike path and trails.
The park, said David Cooney of the Muscatine Pollinator Project, will be a place where people can walk or ride, enjoying the flowers and wildlife—and there will be a lot of wildlife to enjoy.
“We’re looking at monarchs, we’re looking at honey bees, we’re looking at native bees, we’re looking at hummingbirds,” he said.
“We’re also going to do a pole that says, ‘Its 1,903 miles to Mexico,’ where the monarchs have to fly,” he said.
Cooney said the pollinator park is his group’s biggest project to date.
They will plant their first 8 acres by the end of May, and will plant the rest at a later date.
“We’re so excited to have people drive through there and over the next few years, (to) really see these native areas take hold and the difference that it makes,” Koch said.