We Are a Monarch Waystation
Yes, we are! A "Monarch Waystation" that is. After researching about the Monarch Waystation program, I discovered that we already had a designated ID #, which means we have been a waystation for quite some time. We are station #194 on the www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/ monarch map. Annually we have seen the monarch and her eggs and the caterpillar on our milkweed plants.
By maintaining a habitat for the monarch-friendly plants, we qualify as a waystation. Here is what we do:
"We host plants for larvae and energy sources for adult monarchs"
Take a walk through our property and you will find milkweed throughout. Look in front of our Education Center, stroll through the Daffodil Bowl, or just near the fish pond.
According to the Monarch Watch website:
Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to mountains in central Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders, yet it is threatened by habitat loss at overwintering grounds in Mexico and throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada.
You can join us, as neighbors, by adding milkweed to your home garden for monarch conservation.
A suitable Monarch Waystation habitat can be easily integrated into an existing garden. There is no minimum area requirement to certify your habitat; however, a truly effective Monarch Waystation will be at least 100 square feet. The total area may be split among several discrete sites at your location and there is no upper limit for the size of a Monarch Waystation habitat.
Join Reeves-Reed Arboretum and create a monarch waystation in your back yard by contacting Monarch Watch. Your children will love it.
Visit these sites for more information:
http://www.monarchwaystationnetwork.res.ku.edu/
Here is an interesting fact, we are ID# 194 on the monarch watch map and through correspondence with them I was told that numbers are issued in order they are received. They now have 24,000.
