PLUMSTED — A regal sight was recently afforded a number of Plumsted residents after a pair of local nonprofit organizations joined forces to raise and release locally raised monarch butterflies.
Recently, nearly 25 residents joined NEST (Nurture Environmental Stewardship Today) and the MOMS Club of New Egypt at the new Home Run Garden at Green Acres Park on Brindletown Road.
According to the NEST President and co-founder William Lewis, the butterfly release party was the culmination of weeks of work by local volunteers and nature enthusiasts.
“This was a great example of what we as man can do to directly help the environment in front of us,” Lewis said.
In June, the MOMS Club and children teamed up with NEST to construct the garden at the park, introducing native plants that attract monarch butterflies and other beneficial insects to the area, including milkweed.
Milkweed is a particularly important plant for monarch butterflies, as it acts as a habitat and food source for the larvae and caterpillars that eventually take flight.
“The caterpillars that grow into monarch butterflies are solely dependent on [milkweed],” Lewis said. “Once a larvae grows into a caterpillar, it only eats from the milkweed.”
Within weeks, Lewis said, NEST collected monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars that were found on the newly planted milkweed at the garden.
The participants took their findings indoors to observe and nurture the insects into adulthood.
Once fully formed, the participants placed special tags on a wing of each butterfly to help track their lifespan, as well as their migration to Mexico for the winter.
“You can see [the tag] and read the numbers that uniquely identify that butterfly to this location,” Lewis said. “If somebody along the way sees our monarchs or one of them perishes, they can collect the tag and report it back … to let us know where our monarchs have been.”
In recent years, the monarch butterfly population has seen a steady decline due to a number of factors. Chief among the issues causing the reduction is the decline in naturally occurring milkweed.
Lewis described an overabundance of pesticides and herbicides in modern agriculture as the main culprit in the loss of milkweed and other nectaring plants.
Lewis said it is now up to environmental groups like NEST to ensure that there are enough plants to sustain the population of insect pollinators.
“Groups like ours are planting milkweed in natural areas in the hope that monarch butterflies will plant their eggs here,” Lewis said.
According to the Monarch Watch organization, development has resulted in the loss of nearly 6,000 acres of the insects’ habitat each day.
Along with the reduction in suitable habitat and food sources, Lewis said the butterfly also has a number of natural predators, resulting in a large percentage of larvae and caterpillars never attaining adulthood.
“About 90 percent of the eggs a female monarch lays do not actually make it to adulthood,” Lewis said.
Thanks to the species’ difficult time getting off the ground, groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, the Xerces Society and Lincoln Brower filed a petition last year with the federal Department of the Interior to establish the monarch butterfly as an endangered species.
While Lewis said constructing monarch butterfly way stations like the one at the Home Run Garden is one way to reverse the monarch butterfly’s decline, he said every homeowner can help, too.
“You can do this at home and turn your backyard into a way station,” Lewis said.
To do that, Lewis said, homeowners need to sow certain plants on their property, such as butterfly weed, common milkweed and general nectar plants like zinnia, purple coneflower and Indian blanket.
“If we can do something to ensure that butterfly stays in our environment, we can have a direct impact on our environment,” Lewis said.