Wild Ones for Monarchs

Are You Wild for Monarch Butterflies?

If you want to help monarch butterflies continue their wonderful annual migration and life cycle, then Wild Ones has a committee that both provides you with an opportunity and needs your help.

A partnership between Wild Ones, Monarch Joint Venture, and Monarch Watch, the Wild for Monarchs Committee assists monarch butterflies through promoting the planting of nectar and host plants. The committee provides presentations on monarch biology and migration, provides monarch information booths at local events, assists individuals and organizations in establishing native plant areas which include milkweed, and assists in registering these areas as Monarch Watch Waystations.

The committee also collects milkweed seeds and prepares seed packets for distribution at presentations and events. These activities are promoted through press releases and articles in Seedlings, on the Wild Ones webpage, and in other publications.

To volunteer or for more information, contact the Committee Chairs, Carol and Mike Klug at [email protected].

How Can You Help?

• Make a financial donation to support purchase of plug trays, growing media, or plants. Any amount welcome! You can do this through a donation to Kalamazoo Area Wild Ones (KAWO) with a notation for the Monarch Committee in the memo line

• Grow milkweed plants to share with family and friends and to give away at events like plant exchanges. Seeds and instructions available at monthly meetings, or contact Ilse Gebhard ([email protected])

• Plant milkweed in your yard and register it as a Monarch Watch Waystation—if you haven’t, this would be a great time. Seeds and information available at KAWO meetings, or on the Monarch Watch website

• Join the Monarch Committee or express an interest in being contacted for tasks; please let Ilse Gebhard know. Sometime this winter we’ll need help transplanting seedlings from seed flats to plug flats (an excellent opportunity to see how native plants are grown in a greenhouse setting);

• Motivate non-members to plant milkweed on their properties, or share how-to ideas. Ilse Gebhard has a PowerPoint presentation – if you belong to any group looking for programs, please let Ilse know.

Monarch metamophosis from caterpillar to butterfly (3 min)