MONTAGUE — Sprucing up cemeteries and other public areas as well as determining how to connect with the public were a few of the ideas brainstormed at the first meeting of Montague’s Pollinator Action Group on Thursday.

The community-led group came together in the Town Hall annex, where folks got a chance to introduce themselves and begin discussing implementation strategies for Montague’s Pollinator Action Plan, which was prepared in 2022 in partnership with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.

“We don’t have to reinvent much, but we can start looking at all these properties,” said Tom Sullivan, who is leading the group of 18 that participated Thursday. “Start identifying which spaces in all of Montague are right for doing something.”

To kick things off, members talked about what brought them to the meeting, with the vast majority saying the town has a lot of untapped potential for attracting pollinators.

“We want to be able to say, ‘Hey look at this pollinator garden, isn’t it beautiful? Why don’t we tell your neighbor to plant pollinator gardens at their home or on other town properties?” said Town Planner Maureen Pollock. “I feel like this is a really great opportunity to showcase pollinator gardens and show people what they can look like and what their ecological functions are.”

“I see a lot of potential in Turners Falls,” added University of Massachusetts Amherst student Matthew Albertson, “and I’m interested in creating more habitat and I think implementing pollinator gardens is an easy way to do that.”

There are, however, two challenges the group must hurdle to effectively implement their plans: maintenance and public outreach.

“The big thing, for me, is really maintenance. Our department has 1.5 people; we do not have a park crew and we depend on the DPW to do outside maintenance and they’re short staffed,” said Parks and Recreation Director Jon Dobosz. “There are all great spaces and they all have potential … but it really comes down to maintenance — that’s the key.”

A solution for maintenance challenges, Pollock said, could possibly be solved by creating some sort of “Friends of the Pollinator Gardens” group that could have volunteers help maintain public pollinator gardens.

In the public outreach aspect, a topic the majority of people leaned toward was trying to include pollinators in the school curriculum.

“Maybe we can have somebody go to the schools and have them teach what’s happening,” said Page Katsoulis, who is enrolled at Great Falls Middle School. “There was a really big field at Sheffield [Elementary School] we don’t use much of. Maybe we could use that for planting.”

Greenfield resident Elizabeth Nett said working with students would be a wonderful way to imprint some lifelong habits and inspiration.

“It’s so very important to bring this into children’s lives as early as possible,” Nett said, “because they’ll carry it with them.”

The Montague Pollinator Action Group plans to meet monthly, with March 21 tentatively set for its next meeting. To view the town’s 2021 Pollinator Action Plan, visit bit.ly/49injMP.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.