VOLUNTEER IN DENVER PARKS
Volunteer to help
our Pollinators
Help plant & weed our Denver parks!
Denver Parks and Recreation has several amazing horticulturists who are working to create year-round pollinator habitat at Denver's public parks, and they are looking for passionate community members to volunteer! We are so excited to support their efforts and get this opportunity on your radar!
This year we are excited to be offering volunteer days at Washington Park, City of Chennai Park, Cranmer Park, Alamo Placita Park, Denison Park, and Cheesman Park! Please see the buttons above for directions to each garden, and check out the volunteer schedule below.
If you are interested in volunteering, please submit THIS FORM to help us track participation, and COMPLETE THIS WAIVER to bring with you on volunteer days. DPR waiver forms will be available on-site if you have not already filled one out.
We can't wait to see you out there!
If you're a gardener or not, join us and we can help teach you what are weeds, what are natives, and how to plant more pollinator-supporting-natives in our landscapes.
Volunteering to help take care of our pollinator beds in our parks helps Denver Parks and Recreation reduce and eliminate the need for herbicides, so volunteering makes a HUGE difference.
Last summer, People and Pollinators and partnered up with the Rick and Vicki of the Wild Ones Front Range Chapter to coordinate volunteer days to help take care of our parks and natural areas. We met with Rahman Minhas and Carol Wise, Denver Parks and Rec Horticulturists, who directed us on planting, and what to remove. We learned a lot along the way!
Bonus: It's great exercise and you're surrounded by native plants and pollinators for a pleasant & stress-reducing volunteer experience outdoors.
No pressure: Come when you can, we will be coordinating volunteer days every week.
We worked on these pollinator gardens in 2021, make sure to go check them out if you can! (See map at the bottom of this page)
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Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden
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Central Park
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Aurora Kelly Reservoir
DENVER PARKS VOLUNTEERS
PHOTO GALLERY
Want to share your pollinator photos of volunteering and spending time in our Denver Parks? Please send them our way or post on Facebook or Instagram and tag us @peopleandpollinators
VOLUNTEER TESTIMONIAL
One of the Wild Ones Volunteers, Mary, wrote this great testimonial at the end of the 2021 summer season:
“Over the last five months, I have participated in the partnership between Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) and Wild Ones Front Range (WOFR), a group which seeks to preserve biodiversity in native plant communities. I volunteered as a WOFR member to help establish and maintain pollinator gardens in DPR’s parks, an effort led mainly by Rahman Minhas of DPR. Looking back at the dates, I see that the spring and summer flew by. At each session about four to eight volunteers would turn out. Meeting people, sharing our experiences, and making friends was what made this so fun for me.
Rahman is an encyclopedia of information about horticulture and carries a vision for the future of sustainable green spaces in Denver. He tirelessly answered our questions and always made us feel like our work was meaningful.
MARY'S SUMMARY OF VOLUNTEER DAYS:
May 19 – Greenway Park, East 26th Ave – planted pussytoes and prairie cinquefoil from DPR’s greenhouses
May 26 – Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden, East Montview Blvd – weeded out prickly lettuce and bindweed
June 2 – Central Park, MLK Blvd – planted thistle and weeded out kochia
June 27 – Great Lawn Park, Yosemite St – identified chocolate flower and saw an Achemon hawk moth
July 14 – Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden – weeded out copious bindweed
July 28 – Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden – I identified the beautiful datura, or devil’s trumpet, and learned that it is poisonous
August 11 – Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden – due to poor air quality, we all worked for only a short time, but I identified millet and rose mallow
August 25 – Greenway Park – the conversation turned to the Colorado Native Plant Society; I went home and joined CoNPS
September 22 – Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden – we collected seed from at least nineteen plant species
October 6 – Westerly Creek Butterfly Garden – we collected seed from yellow Indian grass, wild Canadian rye, big love aster, and more
I hope that the leadership at DPR and WOFR will continue this partnership next year. I have learned so much about Colorado native plants, and I look at our parks, pollinator gardens, meadows, and prairies with new appreciation.”
~ Mary H., Wild Ones Volunteer
POLLINATOR GARDENS
IN THE CITY OF DENVER
Visit these city pollinator garden beds to see monarchs and other pollinators in Denver. Let us know if you know of any pollinator gardens in Colorado and we'll add them here!
