Carlton Pollinator Project
Around Carlton

Photos

You may have seen us in the paper, at Fun Days, or on the neighborhood feed. Here is what we actually do — the people, the places, and the pollinators.

People at work

Volunteers & Projects

Planting days, garden builds, and neighbors who show up with gloves on. This is the heart of it: a few hours, several dozen plants and a habitat grows to bring life, beauty and joy.

Carlton Pollinator Project volunteers standing together in front of the Beetopia garden beds
A volunteer in gloves and a cap tipping a tub of soil into a raised garden bed
A volunteer setting a nursery pot into freshly turned soil in a raised bed
A volunteer watering newly planted seedlings in a raised bed on a clear spring day
Two children hanging their drawings on the garden fence
A child holding a painted lady butterfly on one finger
A volunteer standing in the blooming Beetopia pollinator garden
Before & after

Beetopia, Season by Season

Six empty beds on a gravel lot met a handful of neighbors determined to bring the 1st Street garden into being. It now can support pollinators through the seasons — our community named it “Beetopia” during its opening at Fun Days 2026.

Empty raised beds on bare gravel under a grey sky before planting
The same garden two seasons later, full of poppies, lavender, and blanketflower
A hand-painted Welcome to Beetopia sign hung on the garden fence
Pink clarkia spilling over the edge of a corrugated metal raised bed
Barrel planters and interpretive signs about native bee nesting on the garden fence
A children's painted mural of a meadow hung on the garden fence behind a bench
Coreopsis and blanketflower spilling over the edge of a corrugated metal raised bed
Pale purple aster blooms opening in the garden beds
Goldenrod in full yellow bloom above the raised beds, with yarrow behind it
A Native Plants Support Wild Bees sign standing in a raised bed of coreopsis and yarrow
In progress

Hawn Creek Pocket Park

A quiet pocket park on South 7th Street is our first habitat restoration project. Partnering with local conservation agencies we hold a vision to see this area turn into a native plant sanctuary for pollinators and wildlife.

The new gravel path at Hawn Creek Park, with the park sign and young trees along the lawn
The creek channel running between birches at Hawn Creek Pocket Park
The open grassy clearing under the trees at Hawn Creek Pocket Park, before restoration planting
Two volunteers setting edging rocks along a freshly mulched slope at Hawn Creek Pocket Park
Volunteers young and old raking leaves and clearing cut brush under the trees at Hawn Creek Pocket Park
Volunteers feeding cut branches into a wood chipper while children in ear protection look on
Out in town

Carlton Fun Days

This year we set up at Fun Days for our grand opening with free native plants, pollinator info, name the garden event, a scavenger hunt and butterfly badges. We got a warm reception from our wonderful community.

The Carlton Pollinator Project booth at Fun Days with posters, a painted mural, and visitors
A hand-lettered poster asking visitors to vote on a name for the garden, with tally marks
A board covered in folded paper butterfly badges made by children
The Vision 2040 pollinator poster on display at the booth
Children's drawings of gardens and pollinators clipped to a fence
A child crouched on the garden gravel in sunglasses, playing beside the beds
Why we do it

Bees, Butterflies & Gardens

All these photos are from the Beetopia garden. Native plants bring back the bees, beetles, butterflies and moths that were here first — the Oregon Bee Atlas has documented 567 native species of bees alone, with evidence of nearly 200 additional species that have yet to be documented.

A painted lady butterfly with wings spread on blue gilia
A bumblebee heavy with pollen on a spike of purple blooms
A leafcutter bee dusted in pollen at the center of a blanketflower
Two long-horned bees on a yellow sunflower, one landing
A cluster of honey bees packed onto the center of a sunflower
A gray hairstreak butterfly resting on white yarrow flowers
A native bee resting inside the pink petals of a checkermallow bloom
A golden longhorn beetle on a white cluster of oceanspray flowers
A dark native wasp walking across the white petals of a mock orange blossom
A pale moth with feathered antennae resting on a dark fence rail
A honey bee working the yellow center of a pink cosmos flower
A native bee on the white woolly blooms of pearly everlasting
A pollen-covered bee on a yellow and red coreopsis bloom
A bumblebee resting on a purple flower
A striped hoverfly on the yellow star-shaped bloom of a cinquefoil

See a familiar face? Come join us.

Planting days are open to everyone, no experience needed. Bring gloves and a friend.

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