Saturday, October 5, 2024
“Monarch Fest” hosted by the Rio Brazos Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist returns to Hood County Saturday, Oct. 12. The event takes place at the Acton Nature Center at 6900 Smoky Hill Court, Granbury from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. This will be the second monarch event of the season with the Hood County Master Gardeners sponsoring their program on Saturday, Oct. 5 from 1:30-4 p.m. at 1410 Pearl Street.
The public is invited to join the volunteers at “Monarch Fest,” a family-friendly event to celebrate the southbound monarch migration. These iconic orange and black butterflies are on their way south this September and October to their winter roosting grounds high in the mountains of Mexico.
Featured learning activities will include the "how and why" of Monarch tagging. Three of the Monarchs tagged at the ANC have been recovered at the winter roosting grounds in Mexico.
There will also be education stations featuring how to select and grow the nectar plants southbound Monarchs need to fuel their migration. Information on the butterflies’ life cycle and the importance of milkweed will also be included. Milkweed is the only host plants that Monarch caterpillars will eat when the adults return to Texas to lay their eggs in the spring.
Visitors will learn how to create a "Monarch Waystation” with the nectar and milkweed plants Monarchs need to thrive and survive, and representatives of the Prairie Rose Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas will also be there to answer questions. Other booths will include features on Monarch health, milkweeds, and native plant seeds (while supplies last) and feature other aspects of citizen science. The Rio Brazos Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist will have a booth as well.
The face-painting booth is a must-stop for many younger guests as well as craft projects including a take-home “caterpillar" to paint, and a butterfly water fountain/puddler made from an upcycled plastic jug.
“Monica Monarch” is eagerly anticipated to share her viewpoint of the life cycle, possibly bringing her caterpillar cousins to show and tell. There will also be a story nook for a read-aloud of monarch storybooks. The first monarch program at the ANC in 2012 began as a tagging event, but it has grown to more than a dozen activities and booths.
While the day should be a fun event for all, there’s also a somber undertone. The Eastern Monarch population that migrates through Texas annually (north in the spring, south to Mexico in the fall to overwinter there) dropped to the second lowest level ever recorded for the winter of 23-24, according to Monarch Watch, an education and conservation organization. These unique butterflies are not counted individually in their winter roosts in the Oyamel fir forests of Mexico, but by the acreage they cover. This past winter, the entire eastern Monarch population would not fill Granbury’s Pirate Stadium twice over.
Source: https://monarchwatch.org/blog/2024/02/07/monarch-population-status-52/
“In order for our grandchildren’s children to be able to marvel at the spectacular monarch, we need to help fuel their migration with Monarch Waystations (native nectar plants and their host milkweeds), reduce the use of herbicides & pesticides (especially neonicotinoids), and offer the monarchs shelter, habitat, and food resources,” said Valerie Taber of the Rio Brazos Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program.
Direct questions to https://txmn.org/rbc/contact-us/
