Plight of the Monarch?.?Preserving America?s Most Beloved Butterfly?
Online/Virtual
A warm summer?s day, sweet popsicles, and that beautiful orange and black butterfly floating across the blue horizon, delighting children and adults alike. It?s our Monarch Memories! Sadly, loss of habitat and it?s primary food source is plucking this iconic beauty from the sky and from our sight.
Monarchs face many risks that are resulting in declining populations in both the eastern and western parts of their North American range. The largest impacts come from the loss of habitat for breeding, migrating, and overwintering. The decreasing availability of milkweed plants and the increased use of systemic insecticides are negatively affecting this beautiful insect along with many other creatures. Habitat protection for monarchs in the U.S. is of extreme importance in the upcoming breeding season.
Come and listen to Pat Miller, Conservation Specialist with Monarch Watch, as she talks about the current conservation work to help this beloved butterfly through the combined efforts of Monarch Watch, Wild Ones, Monarch Joint Venture, The Xerces Society, and other organizations. Discover the magic of Monarch butterflies, their biology, their fascinating life cycle and their incredible annual migration. Come and learn about what you can do to help ?Bring Back the Monarchs? and why milkweed plants are key to their survival. Understand why this miraculous migration is now more than ever considered an ?endangered phenomenon.?
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Pat Miller has a B.S. from Southern Illinois University, is a Conservation Specialist for Monarch Watch, University of Kansas, a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist by the University of Illinois Extension, and a Plant Clinic Technician at the Morton Arboretum. She has reared and tagged hundreds of butterflies each year and has made multiple trips to the Monarch butterfly overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico.
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Pat is a professional speaker, who presents Monarch programs to classrooms, garden clubs, libraries, and environmental groups throughout the Chicago area, reaching over a thousand people annually. She uses her knowledge of Monarchs to entice children and adults to spend more time outside and connect with nature. Pat encourages people to raise a butterfly from egg or caterpillar for the sheer pleasure of experiencing the miracle of metamorphosis.
