“It’s all cut. Everything’s cut to the ground,” said McKee, who has lived in her home on Briscoe Street West in London, Ont., for nearly 20 years. McKee said neighbors told her they saw city staff cutting weeds after someone filed a complaint. McKee received a $125 ticket from the City of London after her front yard and avenue pollinator gardens were mowed while she was on vacation. (Michelle Both/CBC) “I was in shock,” McKee said. “I’ve put a lot of time and love into this garden – and to cut it for no reason other than a neighbor’s complaint is just devastating.” McKee also received a $125 ticket last week. Her garden, once filled with more than 20 varieties of plants — including milkweed, myrtle, chicory and wild rose — was “pretty high,” she said. It covered her front yard and the avenue.
Helping bees and butterflies
More than 30 milk stalks were cut. The plant is known to harbor monarch caterpillars. Just last week, scientists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature added monarch butterflies to the global list of endangered species due to their declining numbers. The Monarch butterfly was already listed as endangered in Canada by the Commission on the Status of Threatened Wildlife in 2016. Wild rose used to grow all over McKee’s front yard, but now only a few remain. The pink-flowered plant was one of the varieties the city cut down. (Michelle Both/CBC) “I think it’s a little bit I can do,” McKee said of her long-loved garden. “Butterflies are disappearing and I can preserve them here. I can take care of them. I can keep them healthy. “If I can do my little part to save the bees and help the butterflies, then that’s what I’m doing and it looks beautiful. It’s a win-win situation.”
Neighbors were collecting monarch eggs
While McKee was on vacation, some neighbors collected milkweed caterpillar eggs from the garden and tended them a few doors down. Serenity, an eight-year-old from the neighborhood, stops by to check on them a few times a week. “They are now in cocoons and soon they will be butterflies,” he said. “It’s really nice to be able to hold them.” Serenity’s mom, Jillian Smith, who has lived in the neighborhood all her life, said she was heartbroken when she cut down the garden. Eight-year-old Serenity Smith lives near McKee’s home and watches butterflies grow from eggs collected from her garden. (Michelle Both/CBC) “I think her garden was amazing. There are always different wildflowers, you see all different kinds of butterflies and little bees and flowers,” she said. Her three children enjoyed going and picking wildflowers, but she had heard other neighbors complain that it was overgrown. This wasn’t the first time a neighbor had called in a complaint about McKee’s garden. Last year, McKee received another ticket from the city bylaw after complaints from a neighbor. She later fell after explaining it was a pollinator garden, McKee said. City of London officials say the perennial gardens are managed under the scheme Weed Control Act. After a bylaw complaint is filed, the city says, the property owner should be notified. McKee said she didn’t find a notice in her mailbox when she returned from vacation.
Think ‘broader for biodiversity’
Keith Hobson, a professor in the biology department at Western University, believes that pollinator gardens should not be removed. Communities need to start thinking more broadly about biodiversity in their communities and regulations need to catch up, he said.
Milkweed, a natural habitat for monarch butterflies, is already growing in the avenue outside McKee’s home after being cut down by City of London workers. (Michelle Both/CBC)
“I think the public is way ahead of the government in that regard, and that is that we love and recognize the importance of the insects, and the pollinators, and the birds and all the kinds of creatures out there that we enjoy in London,” he said. .
Monarch butterflies are suffering and insects are declining in huge numbers, Hobson said.
“People who plant flowers for pollen and nectar contribute a lot.”
