Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Pollinators - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 30, 2026

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Pollinators - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 30, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from Troy University's Trojan Cafe, offering handcrafted
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  Starbucks beverages and a wide assortment of meal and snack options,
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  located on Troy University's Montgomery campus across from the Rosa
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  Parks Library and Museum. From Troy Public
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  Radio, this is In Focus, and I'm
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  Carolyn Hutcheson. Today, Ray Metzler joins
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  us from the Alabama Forestry Commission. Where he serves as Threatened
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  and Endangered Species Specialist.
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  The wildlife biologist and his wife turned an
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  urban space into a project he described in Alabama's
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  Treasured Forest magazine as pollinators in
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  the parking lot. Ray also shares his time with
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  the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
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  Ray Metzler, Welcome back to Troy Public Radio.
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  I appreciate it, Carolyn. Glad to be back. Ray,
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  you're in our Back to Nature series, and I read a fascinating
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  article that you wrote in Alabama's Treasured Forests,
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  issue number 3, and you were talking about pollinators
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  in the parking lot, an urban pollinator garden.
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  Give us the story. The Forestry Commission office
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  started several years ago, actually, when I was asked by
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  the Natural Resources Conservation Service to assist
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  with a pollinator program they were putting in place
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  as a cost share to Alabama citizens.
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  I had never really done a lot of pollinator work, but that request
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  that they made got me to doing a little more research
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  so I could provide them with good information and it piqued an interest in
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  pollinators with me and my wife both. So we actually
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  ended up planting some native pollinators
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  at the house. We ended up getting one monarch butterfly
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  that laid an egg on a milkweed plant we had planted
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  at home. We watched that thing grow from the egg up
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  through hatching into a small caterpillar and up
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  through the 5 larval stages of the molting process,
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  and then it ended up becoming a butterfly,
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  although it had an issue with one of its wings when
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  it went through the chrysalis stage. So it
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  wasn't able to actually fly off. But that process there really prompted
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  my wife and I to do much more around our house
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  for pollinators. And that in turn led
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  to an effort here at the Forestry Commission office in
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  downtown Montgomery. You know, Ray, downtown Montgomery
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  has certainly improved with the planting of trees.
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  I think we have an urban forester responsible for much of that,
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  but you're talking about a parking lot adjacent to the Alabama
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  Forestry Commission on Madison Avenue full of traffic.
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  You planted a garden. How did that happen?
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  It all started when I heard that
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  We have some trees. Obviously, the Forestry Commission is partial
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  to trees, but we had some trees that were in declining health
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  that were directly adjacent to our parking lot, between our parking lot
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  and the city street. The commission made a decision
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  to cut those trees down, so I asked for permission
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  to turn that into a little pollinator garden. The Forestry
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  Commission administration was very happy for me to do that.
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  And it has led to about 900
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  square feet in native pollinator plants
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  now. Not quite 900 feet. I got a little bit more to do next
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  spring to completely fill it up. You went to the Alabama Plant
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  Atlas, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center
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  website. You had a lot of resources going there.
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  So how did you proceed? After the trees were cut down,
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  we had to herbicide any of the grasses
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  that came up. My wife and I started bringing plants from
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  the house into this pollinator
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  in the parking lot space. We've planted about 20 different species,
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  everything from coneflowers to salvias to
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  coreopsis. We have milkweed, phlox, the zinnias
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  were planted as fillers. We're hoping that in
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  the future that the native pollinators will take up more
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  space as they grow each year and seed out and
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  get a little wider in their planting space
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  that we won't have to have as many zinnias. We planted the
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  zinnias as fillers, you might say, and they have been very well
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  received by the pollinator bugs, the bees
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  and the butterflies, moths. The nectar is pretty
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  popular with a lot of those species. Ray, I noticed
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  in your article, Pollinators in the Parking Lot, that you and
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  your wife got some milkweed seeds. You collected them from Autauga
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  and Coosa Counties. Yes,
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  Coosa County. I picked up some milkweed seeds
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  from Flag Mountain. It's one of our state forests
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  that we have, and it was a species that actually occurs here in Montgomery
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  County as well, I believe. I just collected that seed this year,
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  and it has to go through a cold stratification where we'll
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  put it in the refrigerator for 6 weeks or so this winter and
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  then plant it next spring. Toward the end of
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  the article, you go all into the how to do this,
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  and I think this is a great guide for the listeners. How did
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  you end up with the bluebird box? Uh, actually,
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  I, I was out there one day looking from a distance
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  at what butterflies, bees, and those kinds of things. I was just
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  looking to see what I could see from a distance, and I happened to notice
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  a pair of bluebirds on the power line just across the street
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  from our parking lot. And I said, you know, they're probably
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  looking for a place to have a nest. So I like building
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  bluebird boxes. I build a fair amount of bluebird boxes every year and
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  give them away. So I brought a bluebird box in and
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  we just put it up in amongst the flowers. And lo
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  and behold, about 2 days later, they were building a nest in the
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  bluebird box and they hatched out a clutch of eggs and
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  raised that brood and they successfully fledged
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  and left the box. That was earlier in the summer, about May or June.
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  I noticed in your article that you some 275
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  pollinator habitats in Alabama.
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  What advice would you give as far as establishing a
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  pollinator garden in a small space? Do your research.
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  You want to find plant species that are native to your area,
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  and your soil type is really important. Alabama has
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  a multitude of different soil types. You don't want to plant
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  something that requires, say, a high pH soil that
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  needs to be wet in in a sandy, dry site. So pick
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  your plant species according to your soil type that you have and do
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  your research so you can match them up real well.
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  Don't get frustrated if you have failures along the
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  way because if you're new to it, you're going to plant some things that may
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  not do well. Just live and learn. How old is the
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  urban pollinator garden adjacent to the Alabama
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  Forestry Commission Now, we planted our first plant in
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  a very small part of the parking lot. It was only about 40 square feet
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  in the summer of 2025. It did very well,
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  and we actually had monarch butterflies visit in the fall of
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  2025 on their migration back south.
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  So in the spring of 2026, this year, we started
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  to expand that area from 40 square feet
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  to 750 square feet or so right now that is occupied
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  by plants. I hope to have all 900 square feet
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  this time next year. Think what this does to
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  downtown Montgomery. It's not just buildings and concrete.
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  You have brought nature into it. My wife and I,
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  we wanted to show people that you can have a positive benefit
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  for conservation in a very small area in an urban environment.
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  There are lots of buildings around downtown Montgomery and the
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  outskirts of town that are suitable for having a small
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  pollinator garden. And attracting wildlife in the process.
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  Yes. Ray, again, let's refer the listeners to
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  your article. It is Alabama's Treasured Forest Magazine,
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  issue number 3, 2026. Great ideas on
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  exactly how to do this. So I want to thank you
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  for inspiring us. I enjoyed writing the article and I enjoyed being
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  on the show here and encourage everybody to go to the website.
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  Just Google Alabama Forestry Commission and then look for
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  the Treasured Forest Magazine. That was wildlife biologist Ray Metzler,
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  threatened and endangered species specialist, joining us
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  from the Alabama Forestry Commission. Thanks for joining us today for
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  In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  Feel free to get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy
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  Public Radio.