The Brenton Arboretum in Dallas Center is gearing up for a family-friendly event centered around nature tomorrow.

Executive Director Melissa Burdick is inviting people out to the second annual Pollinator Palooza, which will focus on plants, ants, bats, bees, birds, butterflies, moths, and wind. She describes that the event originally began as a collaboration with Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. The program revolves around the process of planting pollinators in your own backyard, and is growing as the Dallas County Conservation, Team Central Iowa Bee Keepers Association, and Trees Forever are apart of it. 

Burdick highlights that there will be exploration stations demonstrating how to reap the benefits of seeds, fruits, honey, and species diversity thanks to pollination. She reveals her favorite part from last year’s event was seeing the amount of people in attendance to support pollinators.

“I thought that was really fantastic. You never know sometimes with these new events what you’re going to get, and this one was just really wildly popular, it caught us by surprise. So we said ‘Great, the more the merrier, let’s do it again,’ and invite even more demonstrators to come out and talk about everything they love about pollinators and everything we can do at home.”

Burdick adds that the demonstrators that will be on site will offer a lesson or have a fun interactive activity for people to enjoy. She notes admission is free to the public and will take place tomorrow at the Brenton Arboretum, 25141 260th Street, in Dallas Center from noon-3pm.