The newly established NJYC pollinator garden in Walters Park, Phillipsburg NJ.
Celebrating Pollinator Week 2026!
Click for Pollinator Facts!
From June 22–28, 2026, communities across the country will recognize Pollinator Week, an annual celebration dedicated to supporting the bees, butterflies, birds, bats, beetles, and other species that help sustain healthy ecosystems.
For the New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg, Pollinator Week is an opportunity to recognize an important connection to our mission: improving and restoring habitat is also an investment in people and communities. When you provide a nurturing habitat to a population in need, and communities thrive.
NJYC of Phillipsburg planted 7.5 acres of wildflowers and warm season grasses at Bread Lock Park in 2024.
Across Warren County, our Corpsmembers contribute to projects that improve public lands, restore natural areas, maintain trails, remove invasive species, plant native vegetation, and create more welcoming outdoor spaces for the public. We’ve even delved into beekeeping. These efforts help strengthen the ecological foundations that pollinators need—native plants, healthy soil, connected habitat, and landscapes with room for life to thrive. Supported through a partnership with the Warren County Department of Land Preservation with the support of the Warren County Commissioners NJ Youth Corps of Phillipsburg has accepted the Commissioners Conservation Challenge and look for every opportunity to establish pollinator habitat wherever we can. This is best demonstrated by the establishment of a 7.5 acre Pollinator Meadow at Bread Lock Park. Planted in June of 2024, the meadow became an oasis of diverse plant life, surrounded by agricultural fields.
The Bread Lock Pollinator Meadow in July of 2025.
A pollinator garden is more than a collection of flowers. It is a carefully supported habitat where small but essential organisms can find food, shelter, and the conditions needed to grow. That same idea reflects the purpose of the Youth Corps experience. Like a healthy habitat, the program is designed to offer support, opportunity, and connection so Corpsmembers can develop the skills and confidence to move forward.
Our members also interact with pollinators, raising Monarch butterflies in captivity to monitor and observe the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.
Through service-learning, our Corpsmembers see firsthand that their work has a visible and lasting impact. A cleared trail creates access. Native plantings support wildlife. Beautification projects build community pride. Each project reinforces a central lesson of the Corps model: when people invest their time and energy in their communities, they can help create conditions where everyone has a better chance to succeed.
NJ Youth Corps of Phillipsburg is proud of this work and proud to be part of the larger Service and Conservation Corps community represented by The Corps Network. Across the nation, Corps programs engage young adults in hands-on service that addresses conservation and community needs while building work experience and career-ready skills. From restoring habitat and maintaining public lands to strengthening neighborhoods and preparing young people for future opportunities, Corpsmembers demonstrate that service is both a response to community challenges and a pathway to personal transformation. It’s in that spirit in which we work here at NJYCP.
As a member program of the Corps Network, NJYC of Phillipsburg is part of a nationwide effort to restore over 350,000 acres of habitat in 2025.
CM with one of over 800 2” plugs planted in the garden at Walters Park.
In what has become a signature project for us is our Pollinator Garden in Walters Park. Located directly adjacent to our offices and funded through a grant from NJ Dept. of Environment Protections’ Youth Inclusion Initiative program - the garden is the physical manifestation of our program - a place whose mission it is to serve the population providing equitable solutions to communities in need.
The garden was a project that provides evidence of ‘proof-of-concept’ - and members were fully invested in its success. They were given a blank canvas on which to work. In partnership with Phillipsburg Department of Public Works, Corpsmembers worked together to implement all their ideas to provide a fully collaborative and cooperative effort yielding an eye-catching result.
The success of the garden even showed the Corpsmembers the lengths that must be taken to ensure success. Planting in the middle of July required watering daily and tending to the encroachment of weeds in order to give the newly planted shoots the best chance to root and grow.
Corpsmembers reflect on the personal impact of their work creating nurturing spaces that bring the community together.
(Above) NJYC of Phillipsburg planted this pollinator buffer just outside the M&M Mars facility in Hackettstown, NJ with NJ Audubon in 2022. (Below) -The same site one year later.
Corpsmembers plant at Bread Lock Park in 2022.
Historically, the NJ Youth Corps has been a program that provides a nurturing habitat to a community in need. This #PollinatorWeek, we celebrate the small creatures whose work sustains so much of the natural world—and the young people whose service helps restore, protect, and strengthen the places we all share. Learn more by visiting www.pollinator.org or by clicking the image to the left!