January 1, 2025
View from the Pollinator Plot

There are a multitude of environmental problems that are clamoring for our attention: plastic pollution, electronic waste, threats to water quality, deforestation, and the “weirding” of our weather to name just a few. Why has the Northeastern Minnesota Synod taken on the mantle of being a Pollinator Synod rather than taking a more encompassing approach to these issues?
To regress a bit, fruits and seeds develop after the transfer of pollen grains from a male anther to a female stigma. This transfer is completed by the wind for some species of plants such as grasses and various trees, and by birds, bees, butterflies and bats for many others. Only after fertilization can the fruit and seeds develop.
It is estimated that globally, ONE THIRD of our invertebrate pollinator species (i.e. bees and butterflies) are facing extinction, including our own state bee, the rusty patched bumble bee. Causes include habitat loss, disease and parasites, changing weather patterns, and pesticides and herbicides.
In 2022, a Pollinator Pilot Project was launched with six congregations, using seed kits to install pollinator friendly gardens on their church grounds, with the purpose of learning from their experience and inspiring more congregations to do the same. At the next Synod Assembly in 2023, a Resolution was passed declaring the Northeast Minnesota ELCA Synod to be a “Pollinator Synod”, with the goal of having all congregations become pollinator sanctuaries with their own pollinator plot. Currently the number of congregations who have plots or are in the process of establishing them has grown to 49 congregations of the 127 in the synod. They range from neatly manicured beds with mature blooming plants to the more natural (aka wild and wooly) plots, but all have native plants to their area and are free of pesticides and other chemicals. Each congregation also has received a sign for their plot declaring it to be a Pollinator Sanctuary, as well as a poster for indoor display.
And this is at the heart of Pollinator Plots: we should not and cannot act in our own narrow self-interest in terms of the fate of the earth. As the old Bill Staines song goes, “All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir.” (It’s on YouTube in case you want to revisit it.) A choir needs all the parts and the world was created and is evolving with great diversity. Our congregations have an opportunity to testify to the wondrous nature of God’s Creation and to our responsibility and pleasure in caring for it. While bees, butterflies and bats are small creatures, often going unnoticed, they play a huge role in the complex web of life. They are another example of the gospel paradox, that what is small and insignificant in the world’s eyes is precious and immensely valuable in God’s. Pollinator plots, providing sanctuary to these tiny but important creatures, are a way to bring visibility to Creation-care in a far broader sense.
Some of you may recall the PBS Red Green Show, which ran from 1991-2006. Red Green, his nephew Harold, and other odd characters ruminated over the joys and challenges at Possum Lodge, which could easily have been in northeastern Minnesota. Mainly slapstick comedy and clever quips, there was usually a kernel of truth in his comments.
As we consider the small and vulnerable populations of pollinators, it would be wise for us to take Red Green’s parting words at show’s end to heart: “Remember, we’re all in this together.” (Psalm 24:1: “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.”)

Jan Bilden
Chair of the Pollinator Plot
St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, MN
Northeastern Minnesota Synod