Volunteers needed to raise monarchs

Volunteers are needed to raise adult butterflies for the 7th annual Minneapolis Monarch Festival – Festival de la Monarca™ on Sept. 12.

At the Festival, the University of Minnesota Monarch Lab will release over 100 butterflies marked with a small, weatherproof identification sticker (tag). The tagged adult monarchs, raised from eggs by volunteers, will be part of a large-scale study of the monarch’s migration. Monarchs tagged and released at the Festival are raised in small numbers from eggs collected in the wild. These individuals will be physiologically programmed for migration. Also since wild monarch populations are now perilously small, they are particularly vulnerable to disease or genetic adaptations, which can be introduced from large rearing operations.

A one-hour training teaches volunteers about monarch biology and best rearing practices for each stage of the monarch life cycle. Each person will receive three monarch eggs and all equipment needed to raise an adult from an egg and bring it to the Festival. Two trainings will be held, both at Nokomis Community Center:

—Training session 1: Sat., Aug. 15, from 11:30am-12:30pm. (http://goo.gl/forms/zJmwyb53QC)

—Training session 2: Mon., Aug. 17, 2015 from 6pm-7pm. (http://goo.gl/forms/aVDsHl1E3e)

Training costs $5 per person to cover staff time, rearing supplies, and eggs. Class sizes are limited so register soon! Spanish speakers are welcome. Classes will be conducted in English and training materials are available in both languages.

Registration and information can be found at: www.minneapolisparks.org.

“Anyone can sign up for a session. We welcome those with zero experience wishing to learn, as well as those with years of experience wishing to ask specific questions or just hone their skills,” says Dane Elmquist of the Monarch Lab. Kids are especially welcome to participate. However, one requirement for successful rearing is access to a consistent source of non-treated milkweed.

Most tagged butterflies are recovered in Mexico, where local residents are hired to find them. However, many more monarchs are tagged than found. Data about these butterflies is collected by Monarch Watch and used to learn about monarch orientation and navigation, and estimate their populations.

The Minneapolis Monarch Festival – Festival de la Monarca™ celebrates the 2,300 mile monarch migration from Minnesota to Mexico and will take place at Lake Nokomis on Sept. 12, from 10am to 4pm. This bilingual, family-oriented event features hands-on learning, art activities with local artists, and a musical lineup with Salsa del Sol and The Brass Messengers. The monarch and habitat exhibits offer many ideas for actions that will help preserve the iconic monarch butterfly and its migration.