A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Pollinators, from birds to butterflies, are in decline because of habitat loss, pesticides and climate change. Chloe Bennett-Steele with StateImpact Oklahoma reports on a new effort to expand their habitats.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Thank you.
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CHLOE BENNETT-STEELE, BYLINE: It's a sunny day in Northern Oklahoma, and Walt Scott is planting a garden.
WALT SCOTT: I made that flower bed along the edge there all across the front. And we grow a few peppers and some garlic in there with it, but mostly flowers.
BENNETT-STEELE: Scott is known as the head gardener at Dick Connor Correctional Center, a medium-security men's prison in Hominy. He's serving a life sentence and really loves gardening. He spends a lot of time with flowers that line the facility's sidewalks.
SCOTT: I just like them. We like to watch the hummingbirds and the butterflies come in, you know?
BENNETT-STEELE: Today, Scott has some extra help. Members of the Oklahoma Monarch Society cart in bags of fresh dirt and native seedlings to start up a new garden. It's part of a partnership between the nonprofit and the state's Department of Corrections. Unused land at four prisons is transformed into native pollinator habitats. Amanda Fitzgerald with the Monarch Society says the gardens are critical for the migrating insects.
AMANDA FITZGERALD: When monarchs come through Oklahoma twice a year, they are looking for that habitat for them to be able to complete that journey.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Uno mas?
BENNETT-STEELE: Helping plant the habitat is Joshua Codynah, who normally works with metals at a prison factory.
JOSHUA CODYNAH: We deal with a lot of hard stuff all day as far as, you know, working and people, you know? And then to come out here to make something soft, it's just a different experience and gives you peace of mind almost, I guess you would say.
BENNETT-STEELE: Codynah is a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. He's also serving a life sentence and says he misses being outdoors and watching insects interact with plants.
CODYNAH: When you're locked up in a cell most of the time of the day, getting to touch a piece of dirt is a piece of freedom.
BENNETT-STEELE: Codynah and other gardeners are installing species of milkweed, asters, black-eyed Susans and blue mistflowers. As the plants take root and grow, migrating birds and butterflies should have a few more places to land in Oklahoma.
For NPR News, I'm Chloe Bennett-Steele in Oklahoma.
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MARTÍNEZ: That story was produced by KOSU's Sierra Pfeifer.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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