Aylmer Butterflyway

The Aylmer Butterflyway is our local chapter of a national movement. Launched by the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF), the Butterflyway Project is a citizen-led initiative to build “highways” of habitat for bees and butterflies across Canada.

The goal is simple but powerful: When we establish 12 or more interconnected pollinator patches in a neighborhood, we create a corridor of food, shelter and safe nesting spaces for native pollinators.

Our Story: From One Living Room to 12+ Stops

Last year, one of our board members and founder, Ioana, became a certified DSF Butterfly Ranger. Armed with a mission and an oversized set of monarch butterfly wings, she mobilized the Aylmer community to build our first 12 habitat stops in a single season.

Ioana grew all the plants for these 12 stops last year at the Localeaf Gardens nursery, but the community came together, especially through Pollinate Aylmer, and built them together. We’ve worked with:

• Students and teachers in schoolyards
• Camp kids at CCEN day camps
• Residents in parks, near the railroad
• Local Businesses & staff with public garden spaces and planter boxes
• Collective garden members, and partner organizations

If there is a patch of lawn or underused public space available in our community, and someone is willing to let us convert it into a thriving ecosystem and pollinator friendly habitat, we mobilize, and show up, not with pitchforks but with native plants and shovels.

Learning by Doing

Our approach is hands-on and multi-generational. Kids join their parents and teachers to get their hands in the dirt, learning about the picky diets of pollinators and the “silly-named” plants they love (like Hairy Beardtongue or Sneezeweed).

Once the gardens are in, the work continues. Many of our neighbors and volunteers stay engaged with their local neighbourhood gardens, helping to tend the plants, collect seeds, and ensure these “islands of habitat” remain strong for years to come.

Looking Ahead: 2026 and Beyond

The Butterflyway Aylmer is growing. This year, six more Pollinate Aylmer members are training to officially join the David Suzuki Foundation as Butterflyway Rangers, and we have the first (unofficial) Junior Butterflyway Ranger in Remi.

We have big plans to expand the Butterflyway across every corner of Aylmer, and show our residents the impact such small acts can make when we work together to connect them.

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Explore the Butterflyway