Launching a Monarch Butterfly Campaign for 2013

[Mona Miller]

Posting for a friend:

Hello Monarch Friends,

I wanted to share a campaign that Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy is kicking off for 2013. We're still in the planning stages but I am gathering a core team of people to help pull it together. If any of you are local to Loudoun County, VA and would like to jump in please contact me directly (nhamilton@loudounwildlife.org). My initial blog posting on this is here: http://www.loudounwildlife.org/blog/201 ... thusiasts/

Similarly, if you are interested in rallying people in your area and want to use any of what I'm putting together, please just ask. I'm happy to share.

Our campaign will have 5 core elements:
- Education/outreach on the plight of the monarch (heavy emphasis on schools I hope but also the community at large)
- Habitat restoration -- planting lots of milkweed, goldenrod, asters, other nectar plants (Waystations galore I hope at local schools, churches, businesses, and homes/communities)
- Raising and releasing monarchs (from cats found here in our gardens, in our school plantings etc)
- Making connections with Mexico
- Creating a core program in Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy that continues beyond this year

I'm heading to Mexico in February with friends. This will be the second trip for me and my husband but the first for my co-adventurers. My first trip was in 2009 and while the population wasn't high, it was better than what is predicted this year. We'll see what we see, and we'll blog from the field. A few of the friends going are local teachers so we'll involve students through technology (fingers crossed technology works).

Anyway, we wanted to share this with all of you -- and if you are local to Loudoun, we could certainly use your help and expertise -- and if you're not but you want to keep apprised of what we do, just let me know and we can do that too.

All my best, to you and our Monarchs!
Nicole

Nicole Hamilton
http://www.loudounwildlife.org