From the continuing resolution passed at our Northeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly, 2023: “Resolved, that all its congregations promote pollinator friendly habitats on their grounds, at home, and in the neighborhood”.  What should these spaces look like?   My view is this - to reflect an earth-honoring faith which accepts and acts on our responsibility to reverse the mindless and consumptive abuse of God’s creation, our pollinator plots need to help rescue and restore the biodiversity of our ecosystems.  Why is this so important?

Let’s start with a definition of biodiversity.  The etymology of the word is straightforward.  “Bio” means life and “diversity” comes from a Latin word meaning “a variety of”.  So literally, a variety of life. For most of the eons life forms have existed on earth, that variety reflected a rich, teeming, incredibly complex weave of life. But in the past couple centuries, that has changed for the worse with alarming rapidity.  Global warming, pollution, large scale destruction of natural habitat, fragmentation of land use, profit driven agricultural monocultures on a massive scale, and incursion of invasive species have all contributed to biodiversity loss.   Most biologists agree that this loss threatens the health of the planet; our future survival depends on our ability to restore it sufficiently to prevent collapse of the natural ecosystems which support us.    Renowned ecologist Edmund Wilson stated that “to save the planet, we must save half the planet for nature”.  But already, more than half of our natural habitats have been destroyed or altered for the worse.  The urgency of the crisis is captured well by this quote from scholar Jason Hickel: “Our use of the term ‘biodiversity loss’ is such a strange euphemism for destruction of non-human beings.”

Loss of biodiversity is by definition accompanied by loss of species.  Insects are especially vulnerable, including the various pollinators on which our own food supply depends.  Insects form the base of the pyramid of the web of life on which all other “higher” life forms are dependent.  Concerned scientists have written for several decades about a possible “insect apocalypse”, in which a catastrophic collapse of the insect population would portend our own demise.  Imagine you are a bumblebee, circa 2025.  In Minnesota, you find to your dismay that less than 1% of the native long and short grass prairies (with their rich profusion of wildflowers) on which your ancestors feasted have now disappeared. In its place, you find endless expanses of corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Flying into more developed areas, you encounter sterile hardscapes of urban sprawl, with its industrial parks, warehouses, freeways, housing developments, shopping malls, airports, and parking lots.  By now exhausted, you venture on a wing and a prayer towards NE Minnesota, but find primarily fourth-growth aspen, shrubland, or monocultures of replanted conifers.  The ample food sources coming from an amazingly abundant mosaic of forest types, of which your ancestors glowingly spoke, seem to have been entirely depleted.  If you are lucky beyond belief, perhaps you will unexpectedly find a 400 square foot pollinator plot at a Lutheran church in Palo – or Twig, Nisswa, or Hibbing – which will reflect on a miniscule scale the “good old days” and keep you alive for a few more days.

Such is our mission – to restore as best we can, in tiny plots which we hope we will reflect the miracle of the mustard seed – a rich variety of forbs and grasses which are optimal for supporting our other than human invertebrate friends.  The demand is enormous, the time is now, and our efforts, to be sustained, require faith in a God who has not yet despaired of using our hands to restore a broken creation over which ongoing divine grief is entirely beyond our comprehension.  And a final caveat – diversity does NOT mean looking for various nursery cultivars and hybrids of our native plants or importing exotic, visually appealing plants from Asia or Europe.  Please plant native species, the very ones the bees’ distant ancestors raved about.  Why that is essential is a topic for a future offering –please stay posted. 

Submitted by Bruce Garbisch, member of Trinity Lutheran Church Cook, the Ecofaith leadership team,  and its  pollinator plot committee