About

Small gardens. Big network. Real change.

We started Pollinator PowerWorks because pollinators need more advocates, more habitat, and more connection. We're an all-volunteer team making conservation accessible through free digital tools, native plant guidance, and a growing network of people and organizations doing good work in their own backyards.

How we work

Plant with purpose

The right plants for your yard, your soil, and your corner of New England.

Digital first

Free tools and resources that make doing the right thing easy — anytime, anywhere.

Better together

We work alongside local conservation groups, giving their work a wider reach and building something stronger than any one organization.

Why we started the Pollinator PowerWorks

We started because the places pollinators depend on are disappearing — quietly, gradually, and faster than most people realize. Meadows become lawns. Roadsides get mowed. Native plants get replaced by ones that look nice but feed nothing. We believed that if we could make it easier for everyday people to plant with purpose, all those small choices would add up to something real.

2021
Founded
15
Gardens planted
12,000+
Square feet planted
5k+
Funds raised
Our team

Pollinator PowerWork Team

Board Members

Ellie Volckhausen
President

Ellie is a mom, Design Director, and passionate pollinator advocate. Ellie has a small patch of sun at her downtown Newburyport property where she and the kids planted swamp milkweed and hosted at least 3 big monarch caterpillars last summer!

Nicolas Forestell
Vice President

Nicolas is studying Forestry at the University of New Hampshire. In addition to his studies, he assists professors and graduate students in researching drought, carbon storage, and much more. In his free time he enjoys hiking, birdwatching, skiing, learning French, and gardening for pollinators! He has cultivated a large garden at his house home to countless native plants and wildlife.

Beth Clary
Secretary

Writing is at the center of Beth Dyer Clary’s life, whether letters to family and friends, free-lance work, or stories and essays. The other constant in her life is curiosity about all that surrounds her be it birds, rocks, constellations, fungi, abandoned hives, all of it! At this point, native plants and pollinators have captured her attention. Much to some of her neighbors’ dismay, her front lawn is now a pollinator meadow.

Susan MacPhee
Treasurer + Digital

Susan is a web designer, mom, and CrossFitter. Susan is devoted to recycling, composting, and protecting the earth. She volunteers with the Newburyport Recycling Department as the Terracycle manager, lives in a net zero energy home, and helps Bee Keeper associations with digital assets.

We're looking for volunteers!

Every person who plants a native garden, shares a resource, or shows up to pull an invasive species is part of this. We're building something together — and it grows with every person who joins.

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