The Charles D. Switzer Library is promoting the Great Georgia Pollinator Census scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The citizen science project organized in the state by the University of Georgia involves volunteers signing up to count butterflies, honey bees, carpenter bees and other insects in support of pollinator conservation.

The August 19-20 Pollinator Census activities at the library in downtown Marietta will be staged at the pollinator garden recently registered as a Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail location. The trail is designed to promote butterfly-friendly gardens with a special emphasis on monarchs and to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators in the ecosystem. Formed in the former first lady’s hometown of Plains, the trail has grown to locations across several states and countries.

Rosalynn Carter’s 95th birthday is Thursday, August 18. The Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, a non-profit organization she co-founded, is developing a book in honor of her birthday which lists all of the gardens on the Trail with photographs, including Garden 269 on the Switzer Library plaza. All of the registered gardens are listed at www.rosalynncarterbutterflytrail.org.

Switzer Library is a recipient of a Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail Grant that funded pollinator plants and soil for the garden. The pollinator gardens partnership of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail and Georgia Public Library Service for grants to expand the trail at public libraries is supported by Georgia Farm Bureau, UGA Extension, and Georgia Public Broadcasting. All public libraries in Georgia will receive a copy of A Journey to Plains, a children’s book about butterflies in the small southwest Georgia town by the Butterfly Trail’s co-founder and president Annette Wise of Plains.

For information on signing up for the Pollinator Census program at Switzer Library, visit www.cobbcounty.org/library.