Parks for Pollinators is a national campaign to raise awareness and community involvement in the pollinator crisis through local parks and recreation and like-minded organizations. NRPA and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation are challenging local parks to get involved and host a pollinator BioBlitz during September.

If your agency signs ups and hosts an event, they will be entered into a random drawing to win one of three $1,000 prizes and one of three Scotts Miracle-Gro prize packs to help with your pollinator habitats or programs!

By signing up you will:

  • Receive a general toolkit explaining how to host and manage your events.
  • Receive a marketing toolkit with sample social media posts, email copy and a template press release to help promote your BioBlitz.
  • Commit to support the Parks for Pollinators campaign, focused on raising public awareness of the current pollinator crisis by encouraging local action and positioning parks as a national leader in advancing pollinator health and native habitat.

See Rules

How Does It Work?

  1. Submit the form below to indicate your interest in hosting a BioBlitz.
  2. Use the BioBlitz Toolkit to build your project, plan and manage your events.
  3. Complete this registration form* to be listed under NRPA’s BioBlitz campaign on iNaturalist and to be eligible for prizes.
  4. Use the BioBlitz Marketing Toolkit and assets to market your BioBlitz events for September 2025.

Please reach out to resilience@nrpa.org with any questions or technical difficulties as you complete your sign up!

Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz

Youth child participates in activity during Parks for Pollinator BioBlitz event. Photo courtesy of St. Charles County (Missouri) Parks Department.

 

The Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz is hosted on iNaturalist.  Participating park and recreation agencies will create a local campaign under NRPA’s national Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz campaign.  Instructions are included in the BioBlitz toolkit you will receive after signing up. For visual learners, please watch the video below. *This step is required to be eligible for our prize drawing.

 

 

Why Host an Event?

Hosting a Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz event allows your community to explore your parks, to engage in environmental issues, and to see how many pollinators and pollinator-friendly plants they can find. You can even make a competition out of it to see who can find the most species. Your BioBlitz will produce data specific to your parks and community. The results of all the local BioBlitz events will be incorporated into the national campaign to show how parks across the country are supporting pollinators in their local spaces.

Your agency can use that data from the event to create an inventory of the species (pollinators and plants) found in your local parks. This can be a valuable tool to better manage your open spaces and help you create your future management and sustainability plans. You can also grow your environmental education and engage a whole new group of volunteers and future park ambassadors! Read about the possibilities here.

According to agencies who have participated in our BioBlitz:

  • Fifty-five percent were hosting a BioBlitz event for the first time.
  • Half of agencies held virtual events, and many held both in-person and virtual events; this program is flexible.
  • Most found NRPA’s resources and assistance extremely helpful for creating and hosting a BioBlitz
  • The majority continue to host their own BioBlitz events and to participate in the Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz in subsequent years.

Agencies use what they learned to:

  • Bolster their environmental education.
  • Grow their volunteers and support from the community.
  • Plan, restore and manage their parks to be more habitat and pollinator-friendly.
  • Influence and engage others such as elected officials, leadership, planners, maintenance staff, partners.
  • Start an annual collection project to assess biodiversity for their parks’ species inventories.
  • Advance sustainability practices for their agency and community

This is a great opportunity to engage your community members in a community science event while promoting pollinator awareness and education. Read about the results of the  2024 Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz here.

 

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