Ernie Miller Nature Center celebrates majesty, mystery of monarchs

You are invited to help monarch butterflies embark on the road trip of a lifetime.

To celebrate the butterflies’ annual migration to Mexico, people of all ages are welcome to attend the Ernie Miller Nature Center’s Flight of the Monarch event Sept. 19, which includes capturing, tagging and releasing the fire-orange creatures into the sky.

“Monarchs take this incredible 1,300-mile journey from Kansas to the mountains of central Mexico,” said Regina Wasson, a park naturalist for the Johnson County Park and Recreation Department. “To this day, scientists have no idea how the monarchs even know to go there. It’s an instinct embedded in their DNA, like an eternal compass.”

The event at Ernie Miller is part of a nationwide conservation effort led by Monarch Watch, a nonprofit program based at the University of Kansas. Researchers at Monarch Watch focus on the butterflies, their habitats and their fall migration.

To do so, volunteers place small stickers on one wing of each captured butterfly to help track their journey.

The process is fairly easy, Wasson said, and it only requires a net and patience.

“It’s not uncomfortable for the butterflies at all and there’s no determinant to their flight or ability to migrate because of it,” she said.

Tracking monarchs has become vital in the past few years, explained Chip Taylor, the founder and director of Monarch Watch, because the butterflies’ population had been in a decline.

He said that during breeding season monarchs require milkweed plants on which to rear their larvae and nectar sources to survive. These resources are diminishing.

Deforestation in Mexico has eliminated a number of colony sites and others have been badly degraded, reducing the shelter and water available to wintering butterflies.

Pesticides also play a negative role.

Tagging the butterflies, to track their journey, helps researchers determine the creature’s success rate, its population and how habitats are changing.

And saving the monarchs isn’t just about saving the monarchs, he stressed.

“Hundreds, if not thousands, of species live in those habitats with the monarchs,” said Taylor, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas. “This movement is about preserving our natural ecosphere because if we lose those pollinators, we lose a lot more down the line, from birds to small mammals. It’s all tied together.”

Fortunately, national conservation efforts, as well as a change in weather, have increased the monarch population.

This year, in the Midwest, the population has grown stronger than it has been since 2007, Taylor said.

“Monarchs are making a little bit of a comeback now, which is nice to see,” he said. “The effort is getting stronger and we’re making a dent, even though it’s small.”

To help keep the momentum going, the community is encouraged to take part in tagging and releasing events like Flight of the Monarch at the Ernie Miller Nature Center.

People can even tag and release butterflies themselves. The Monarch Watch website sells tagging kits and insect nets.

Wasson added that another way to help is to grow milkweed and nectar sources, such as thistle, goldenrod, aster and dotted blazing star, in your yard.

The butterflies making the journey to Mexico this fall should arrive there by the last few days of October. Upon arrival, the monarchs form loose clusters on fir trees, usually on ridge tops, according to the Monarch Watch website.

The monarchs’ arrival into the mountains also coincides with Mexico’s Day of the Dead. According to traditional belief, the monarchs are the souls of ancestors who are returning to earth for an annual visit.

“The migration process is just fascinating,” Wasson said. “It’s pretty phenomenal on so many different levels.”

She hopes the Flight of the Monarch event at Ernie Miller helps fire people up about preserving wildlife and supporting scientific research.

“It’s a powerful feeling to know it’s possible to make a difference,” she said. “The more you care about something, the more likely it will be saved.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 9:23 AM with the headline "Ernie Miller Nature Center celebrates majesty, mystery of monarchs."