Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette Attendees Jon (far right at table) and Alex Ziemba (far left at table) with their children rolling seed balls at the event.  The seed balls will be planted to come up this upcoming spring.

The Keweenaw Chapter of Wild Ones held a presentation at Calumet Public Library on November 20 about monarch butterflies and native plants they pollinate along with a workshop on seed balls. The event was mostly centered on educating children but allowed adults to attend as two representatives of Wild Ones went over things such as the anatomy of the monarch butterfly’s migration paths and behaviors and the dangers it faces as an endangered species.

The presentation on the butterfly and native plants was given by the Keweenaw’s Chapter board member Cassandra Reed-Vandam as she went into an extensive overview of the insect as well as its presence in the Keweenaw Peninsula during the migration it takes each year to reach 3,000 miles away in central Mexico. The monarch butterfly has to complete this journey in a short time as they only live anywhere from two to five weeks.

After they reach Mexico, they hibernate until Spring where they will return to the northern portions of the U.S. and southern portions of Canada. The butterflies however will go through around three generations to reach those lengths. The extensive migration pattern in a world where their habitat is in jeopardy and continuous changing climate is contributing to the insect’s decline.

In the Keweenaw region one of the butterfly’s preferred plants is milkweed. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on this plant, which is a reason why Wild Ones sees spreading education on this plant as useful in restoration efforts for the butterfly. After a brief overview of the milkweed plants and their ideal acclimation to the local climate, Reed-Vandam gave the floor to Keweenaw Chapter President Marcia Goodrich to teach the attendees how to make seed balls.

Goodrich instructed the attendees to roll clay and compost into a ball with milkweed seeds placed throughout. After the ball is rolled up they will need to be set aside to dry. Once they are dried, the ball is to be tossed in an area where it is tolerated by the planters (milkweed will spread in a wide fashion) such as along roadways or the back of a backyard. After the seed ball is placed, it will sit over the winter and then have a chance of growing in the spring.

“We’re just trying to bring more milkweed stems out into the world,” Goodrich said before crafting the seed balls. “I would love to do it all throughout Iowa and Nebraska; put strips around every corn field. But I may not be able to do that, but by golly, we can get it going more in the Keweenaw.”

Attendees put the seed balls together and then took them home to plant in hopes of increasing more plants for the monarch butterfly’s ideal habitat. Reed-Vandam was quite content with the event and relished in passing the awareness of the butterfly and milkweed onto children.

“I think it’s really important to engage kids in the stewardship of our land and of protecting our native pollinators and their plants,” she said. “You can reach kids at a young age a lot easier than adults sometimes, and so getting them excited and getting them to have a hands on experience doing this kind of work while connecting it to their science classes is really how we can inspire the next generation.”