For the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy, the Pollinator Project has become more than something we do; it has become who we are! This important initiative has genuinely changed the conversation about how our organization, a nationally accredited land trust with 20 years of experience, can make a difference in the region.

We spent 2015 and 2016 asking, listening, and meeting. We learned about challenges in Saginaw, plans that had been made, and opportunities to help. From those critical months of homework, we made friends and joined partners. Projects like the Janet H. Nash Riverfront Preserve and the Zoo Trail were born. The Pollinator Project also came to be.

​The Pollinator Project uses re-naturalization techniques to stabilize vacant urban land. It helps with crime reduction, boosts community beautification efforts, removes blight, helps threatened pollinators, and reconnects people in the most isolated parts of the community with the people around them. We are so proud to be at the center of this multi-disciplinary effort.

After three years of careful pilot planting and ramping up to scale, we have learned a lot. We have developed a variety of techniques that include both low-growing flowering lawns and more rustic wildflower plots. We have tackled rusting car parts and illegally dumped mattresses and couches. We have cut down weeds taller than our truck. We have put our methods and resolve to the test. Now, we are ready to initiate a three-year plan to add a full 200 acres of blight removal and new flowers into the mix. By the end of this proposed three-year program, we will have tackled nearly half of all Saginaw County Land Bank vacant residential parcels in the City of Saginaw, about 260 acres of land!

Pollinator Project Map

For the 2019 season, we are going to be tackling vacant property in some of the most visible parts of the city. Click below to find out exactly where we've been, and where we're headed.​

Pollinator Project Supporters


​The Pollinator Project is truly a collaborative effort, and made possible by the generous support of the Saginaw County Land Bank, the Saginaw Community Foundation, trust/foundation support, and the business community.​