Citizen scientists can help count pollinating orchard owners in Northern Michigan • Michigan Advance

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Plant pots – large boxes with ornamental plants – are a basic feature in many inner cities and are often used to beautify the streets.

In Traverse City, they also form the basis for a citizen science program to count pollinators.

There are small signs in the flower boxes that encourage passers-by to take three minutes to count and categorize the insects that pass by, such as bees, flies and butterflies.

Using a QR code on the signs, citizens can start an online survey. There they can indicate how many insects they see around the plant pots.

The project began several years ago as a collaboration between the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority, the Master Gardener Association of Northwest Michigan and Michigan State University Extension.

“It’s a small part of an initiative that’s happening across the country and, I would say, the world, just to get more information about pollinators,” said Nate Walton, an MSU Extension educator in Leelanau County. “It’s kind of our way of raising awareness about pollinators and also what we can to just collect some data and contribute to that. I think as a standalone project, we need more data.”

It will likely be many years before solid data for the region is available, Walton said, but in the meantime he hopes the project will continue to encourage public participation.

“One of the things that, frankly, excites me the most is the fact that people do this,” he said. “That they take time out of their vacation, usually, or maybe their work day, and spend at least three minutes looking at flowers and observing insects that visit those flowers.”

Pollinators are facing a a series of threats – from the use of pesticides to the destruction of habitats to global warming.