Andrea Gowing

Founding member

Andrea is passionate about native pollinator plant gardening.  Having been interested in plants and gardening for most of her life, Andrea studied to become a Master Gardener during the pandemic through the Dalhousie University Department of Agriculture.  In 2022, she purchased a greenhouse where she grows winter sown seedlings.  After retirement from 35 years at the Ottawa Public Library, she became a founding member of the Maitland Area Pollinator Projects and began native pollinator gardening.  Winter sown seedlings are sold by this group to promote pollinator plants in our area.

Joining the David Suzuki Foundation in 2024 as a Butterfly Ranger, she helped neighbours develop 15 Butterflyway gardens in her neighbourhood.  

Andrea’s gardens are extensive and are in transition from traditional cultivated ornamental gardens to primarily native plants.   She helped develop the first boulevard garden in the Bel-Air neighbourhood, the Agincourt Road Boulevard Garden, under the City of Ottawa’s updated Right of Way By-law.  She has presented on the importance of pollinator plants and gardens to community groups and participated in the Community Engagement Project with Carleton University and CAFES as a community association representative.  She has also helped in the rejuvenation of gardens at Agincourt Road Public School.  Recently she has developed a three part program aimed at grade six students to introduce pollinator plants and winter seed sowing, culminating with winter sown seedlings being planted into school gardens. 

While gaining greater knowledge, her goal now is to provide information and resources to those who want to begin their journey as a native pollinator gardener. 

Pam Gullen

Founding member

Pam has always enjoyed gardening.  In May 2020, before retiring as an elementary school teacher, she came across Berit Erikson’s Corner Pollinator Garden on one of her walks.  She was immediately hooked and introduced herself to Berit. Berit was both generous with her knowledge, seeds and plants, and got Pam started on her own project. Her growing garden space became her happy place. 

Several years later, Pam felt the need to search out and connect with native pollinator groups in her community, as well as the Ottawa region. She soon joined forces with neighbours Jennifer Gautreau and Harry Fischer to establish a garden in the city-owned Agincourt Park.  Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful due to insurance barriers.  Determined not to be defeated, she contacted Andrea Gowing, and together they created MAPP and subsequently their Facebook group as a means to advocate for native pollinator plants in their community.  Soon Harry Fischer, Karina MacIsaac, and Grace Quon joined them, and the rest is history.  

Pam knew she wanted to do more, and went on to reach out to many different pollinator / native plant advocacy groups in the west-end in an attempt to work together. In late 2023, Pam gathered with these groups and created WPP-COT who, together, ran the first Pollinator Appreciation Day in Ottawa in the summer of 2024.

She feels it is very rewarding to see the increase in native pollinator gardeners in the Bel-Air community. There is also a growing swell of interest and advocacy in the city of Ottawa and beyond, as people become aware of the importance of native plants and wildlife-friendly gardening practices to ensure a healthy ecosystem. She is proud and excited to be a part of it.

Harry Fischer

BACA Representative

Working under “senior management”, Harry is converting his lawns into flower and vegetable beds to improve local biodiversity and grow heirloom tomatoes. 

He is working with various local groups in an effort to come together in advocating at city hall so Ottawa can be a “greener” city. Along with being active with MAPP, he is the president of the Bel-Air Community Association (BACA) along with being a member of the FCA, and Horizon Ottawa. He also volunteers at Beetbox Farm in the greenhouse and as a field hand.

He is confident that if we all work together, we can make a difference for our ecosystem and make the city a greener place.

Karina MacIsaac

Horticulturalist

Karina graduated from Algonquin College’s Horticultural Industries program in 2020. She left the field shortly afterwards, unhappy with the view of native plants and pollinators in the landscaping industry – she now works in cyber security.

She attempted to create a native pollinator garden in the city-owned Bel-Air Park, but was given a reply from the City of Ottawa which included a requirement for an approximately $2M insurance policy. Around a year later, in January 2023, Karina received a message from Andrea Gowing through Facebook. Andrea had seen Karina’s advocacy for native plants and pollinators in their community group and extended an offer to join MAPP and help make a difference in their community.

Since then, Karina has transformed her father’s front garden into a habitat for native pollinators, completely gutting the existing garden and starting from scratch. In the spring of 2023, Karina and her father built a greenhouse in their backyard – she is very grateful for his help in making her dream come true. She has also become a David Suzuki Butterfly Ranger, and a volunteer with the Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library to help manage their social media.

Grace Quon

At-Large

Grace Quon discovered the benefits of native plants while reading about the decline of pollinators. In 2021, she decided to transform her side strip from a weedy lawn to a long bed for native plants. As she and her family prepared the area for planting, they found a common milkweed plant had sprouted by itself in the middle!

Since then, she’s been enjoying the beautiful display as plants go in and out of bloom, and she’s become addicted to watching bumblebees and other pollinators flying around: an amazing change from the flat lifeless landscape there before.

Being a lazy gardener, Grace also appreciates the low maintenance requirements of native plants. So much so that her garden beds have also become mostly native plants now. She has her eye on tackling the front lawn next…

She is proud to volunteer for both MAPP and the Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library.