Our program year begins this month, and we're looking forward to an autumn filled with exciting field trips and enjoyable events. See what's ahead by browsing our
Events and Calendar page posting, "
Hittin' the Road October and November."
But don't think we've been on vacation this summer! Our pollinators are in trouble. So much trouble that one species, the American monarch butterfly, may be listed as an endangered species by the end of this year. Our
Monarch Committee was busy this summer learning about butterflies, contributing to the general store of knowledge about them, and providing native milkweed habitat for the monarch in particular.
In June we held our first
butterfly count in Alpine Groves Park as part of the NABA 4th of July Butterfly Count. We published our adventure,
Butterflies Count, in the local Creekline, and wrote a follow-up article,
How High Does the Swallowtail Fly? for the August edition on how to identify the butterflies commonly found in this area of the county. Our companion posting at this website,
Butterflies, Our Blog, and a Full Moon, features a slideshow of the butterflies that call our Freedom Butterfly Garden home.
In the meantime we were scouting all available sources for native milkweed in order to create Monarch Waystations to support the monarch's life cycle. In July we finally hit paydirt: white aquatic milkweed
(aesclepias perennis). The article, "
Monarchs on the Brink," in the September 2015 edition of the Creekline describes where and how we established these native milkweed at
Trout Creek Recreation Center and at a longleaf pine farm and conservancy near Racey Point,
Saturiwa. Summer camps were still running at Trout Creek and we partnered with the county Master Naturalist, Ayolane Halusky, to explain the importance of native milkweed to monarch caterpillars. Many of the children not only knew about the monarch butterfly lifecycle, but were also aware of its precariously low population numbers. We were able to show them some very happy caterpillars lunching away on the milkweed we'd installed!
To find out more about Monarch Waystations and the great "Native vs. Tropical Milkweed" debate, click the More link below.
