Living sustainably is a goal many people are working toward in 2019, with the environmental threats of global warming, deforestation, and air pollution looming, any changes people make to be more conscious goes a long way. Within the Rolla community some members have gone the extra mile by reaching out and encouraging those around them the to live more environmentally friendly.

One of these community members is Gary Bertrand, the President of the Rolla Community Garden. The Community Garden is open for the sole purpose of connecting with nature and is nestled right behind the Rolla Recycling Center. Bertrand spoke about the gardens and the close relationship with the Recycling Center.

“I think some of the things we do will make a difference because we are very closely associated with the recycling center. They are our best friends. We share some produce with them, they are always happy to help us. They supply us with some of the materials from the composting they do,” Bertrand said.

When Bertrand originally started the gardens in 2012, he had different outlook.

“What we expected this to be primarily for older people, and we are as much interested in teaching and sharing knowledge about gardening, as we are about any of the other things,” Bertrand said.

Bertrand also boasted about the wide variety of members who come from all around the world to share their own unique experiences and knowledge.

“In the past two years we we’ve had a lot people from Asia, mostly graduate students with families (…) they are out here to grow the food that’s from home to them. I think we have about six families represented by those that have come from Asia here. They do things like growing pumpkins as a vegetable and cooking it when it’s green,” Bertrand said.

The effect of the gardens on the community have been substantial even though it is such a small operation.

“What we contribute is an attitude, and the fact that we are growing food and giving some of it back to the community. We aren’t totally green, we say we are environmentally friendly,” Bertrand said.

Charlotte Wiggins, the founder of the Rolla Beekeeping Club, is striving to educate and excite people about nature and is an extremely involved and passionate community leader. She also writes multiple blogs on gardening, beekeeping, and cooking.

“I’m retired from the Forest Service (…) for 30 years I worked with nature, and have always had a love of the outdoors. I started the blogs because I thought with climate change, which we were the agency in the federal government that was supposed to be discussing the impacts of rapidly changing climate, I thought personally need to also walk the talk,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins explained that she founded the Rolla Beekeeping Club in order to involve people in the plight of bees.

“I was teaching beekeeping classes and the students were asking for support (…) this is probably the hardest time in the history of beekeeping to keep bees,” Wiggins said.

She goes on to explain that pathogens, loss of habitat and poor nutrition affect the bee. As the main pollinators, it is affecting our food sources. Wiggins divulges a little of what goes on at the monthly meetings and the importance of the Bee Club.

“A lot of people go into beekeeping for different reasons (…) what we do is teach people the importance of pollinators in our society, in our environment and we redirect people to be more intune with what is happening with what’s happening with the weather, outdoors, in their community,” Wiggins said.

In her own home, Wiggins implants many ways to live sustainably.

“I cook, I grow my own food (…) I recycle, I collect my own rainwater (…) my yard is a one acre certified wildlife refuge and a monarch waste station. So I walk the talk,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins is excited to see what the future holds and actively works towards it.

“I hope they won’t plant so much grass, they plant more flowers, we need habitat for the pollinators, not just the bees. I am trying to encourage people to do that through my blog, Gardening Charlotte,” Wiggins said.