’Buds meet butterflies

By Susan Gibbs, Record Reporter
Published: October 2, 2008

Under bright blue skies—and the watchful eye of butterfly breeder Linda Marchman - members of the 4-H Cloverbuds took turns tagging and releasing butterflies at the Greene County Community Park Monday, September 22. 
They were freeing them to join the hundreds of millions of other monarchs from the eastern United States and Canada that migrate to Mexico each fall.
The butterflies seemed a little confused with their new-found freedom, sticking around long enough to give the dozen or so Cloverbuds, ranging from ages four-and-a-half to nine years old, a great deal of pleasure while they learned.
A monarch butterfly came to light on Peter Kalis’ chest.
Another landed on Jacob Howard’s backside.
Melanie Johnson used her binoculars to get a closer look at one that landed on the ground.
And the Cloverbud parents who came up with the butterfly release idea were just as excited about it as their kids.
For Susan Kalis and fellow Cloverbud mom Deb Howard, both of Ruckersville, that excitement had come in stages.
“When our family participated in an Iditarod activity last winter, we were introduced to Journey North - a global study of wildlife migration - and we knew it was a not-to-be-missed opportunity,” explains Kalis. “We just had to wait for autumn!”
Journey North tracks the seasonal habits of mammals, birds and butterflies. Kalis and Howard decided to teach the Cloverbuds about the migration of the monarch butterfly, the most social of all butterflies.
Originally, just a symbolic migration was planned.
Through Journey North’s symbolic migration, kids in the United States make paper monarchs and send them to children who live beside the monarch sanctuaries in Mexico. Come spring, the children in Mexico return the paper butterflies to the children in America who made them, letting them know the real butterflies are on their way back.
Last year, more than 70,000 paper butterflies were sent from children in the north to children in the south.
What a good way for the Cloverbuds to learn about conservation and ambassadorship, the parents thought.
Then, they made another discovery that sweetened their plans.
“While researching the symbolic migration we discovered http://www.MonarchWatch.org,” Howard explains. “That website provides instructions for creating and registering a Monarch Waystation through a program administered by the University of Kansas.”
While monarchs are not endangered, they are in danger of declining to extremely low levels by habitat loss. Monarch caterpillars need milkweed to eat, and the butterflies they turn into need nectar from flowers to provide them with enough energy to make their flight south come fall.
But the development of subdivisions, shopping centers and factories is bulldozing traditional monarch habitats at the rate of 6,000 acres a day - more than two million acres each year. Moreover, the widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans has resulted in the loss of more than 80 million acres of monarch habitat on farmland in recent years.
The folks at MonarchWatch are encouraging people across the nation to create Monarch Waystations - or monarch habitats - in home gardens, at schools, businesses, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides and in parks.
Just when Howard and Kalis decided they would explore the possibility of developing a Monarch Waystation at the Park in the spring, things got even better.
“About a week before (the event), we found out about … Social Butterflies,” says Howard.
Social Butterflies is Marchman’s company. She’s been raising butterflies, to be released at special events, for seven years. But she also teaches students of all ages - from Cloverbuds to retirees - all about butterflies.
In addition: “(Marchman) participates in the MonarchWatch tagging program,” says Howard.
The butterflies are tagged by placing a tiny, round polypropylene tag over a disc on the undersides of the butterflies’ hindwings.  Once tagged, scientists - and others - can keep track of the butterflies’ activities.
When Marchman came to the Park on September 22 she brought more than butterflies and tags: she brought caterpillars and chrysalis with her, earning everyone’s undivided attention every step of the way.