Wonderful Workshops

[John Beaulieu]

Brenda and I have just returned home (Midhurst, Ontario) from a trip that took us to two Monarch Teacher Network workshops. Our first stop was in New Jersey to visit Eric and Kris Mollenhauer. Eric runs the Monarch Teacher Network out of the EIRC (Educational Information & Resource Center) in Sewell, NJ.

These are 3-day workshops, and we were able to help out at the first day of the EIRC facility workshop, before heading down to Virginia for the three days at Belmont Elementary School (Prince William County, near Washington, DC.)

It is Brenda, who is 'the teacher', but over the years of attending and helping at the workshops with her, I have become an honorary member of the MTN. My main interest has been in horticulture, but this ties in very well with the monarch part. Without the milkweed and the nectar plants the whole monarch experience will not happen.

I got to do fun jobs such as feeding (and showing others how to do it) the monarchs that were at the workshop, staffing the milkweed table as participants moved through 'stations', as well as helping with the explanation about the 'milkweed community'. This is all fun and we all learn so much doing this, but seeing the excitement build as the participants learn more and more is even more wonderful. I got to meet many people with whom I have corresponded with on Monarch Watch forums and e-mail lists.

Our field trip was to a nature reserve and we met Larry, who works studying the monarchs, not only counting, tagging and observing, but even weighing them and keeping records on that. We saw lots of butterflies on the field trip and also on all legs of our trip through NY, NJ, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Whether near the coast or along the ridges of the mountains, monarchs were always in evidence. They have had a good year in these areas and the butterflies are still laying eggs in these southern (to us) regions.

Most milkweed seemed to be through flowering, but the boneset and Joe-Pye weeds were filling in as main nectar sources along the highways. At home, our monarchs are now starting to gather and prepare for their journey south. We are hoping to find a few eggs for Brenda's class (school starts Sept. 4) but it seems that our monarch mindset has now turned from breeding to travel.



The crew at the ERIC in NJ


Feeding the workshop butterflies. The feeding room was cool enough that they did not fly from their little pads with sugar water.


Staff and participants in Virginia

John

[Mona Miller]

I attended the workshop at Springhill Elementary in McLean, VA last August 2007. I will be helping with the workshops at Waples Mill and Prince William, both are in Virginia:

http://www.eirc.org/website/Programs-+a ... twork.html
Main website for Monarch Teacher Network (MTN)
On the left, click on Workshops for Teachers

I had so much fun. I can't wait until next year.

[John Beaulieu]

Mona

We were close, but did not get to meet. You were at one Virginia workshop and Brenda and I were at the other. This year we are going to Columbus, Ohio, to volunteer (we try to do one US workshop each year).

For Canadians, you can visit http://www.monarchcanada.org/ to check out the locations of workshops in Canada.

We are excited that one will be relatively close to us, in Wiarton, Ontario. This is on the Bruce Peninsula, a fantastic area that is a naturalists paradise, with amazing limestone cliffs (Niagara Escarpment) and is home to many rarer ferns and orchids.

Of course, Wiarton is also famous for Wiarton Willy', the Canadian groundhog who just predicted that we will have an early spring! He does not always agree with his American cousin Phil. We actually got to visit Phil on the way home from Virginia last year, stopping in Punxsutawney, PA.

Perhaps we will meet some of you at one of these workshops?

John

[Mona Miller]

There was another lady from Canada at our Springhill workshop--Anne Powers. She was fantastic. Also, Marcos Garcia the Mexican archeologist was there, too.

I took the group for a tour of Meadowlark Botantical Gardens as our field trip. They loved it. Marcos called it paradise.

http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/meadowlark/index.php
Meadowlark

I would recommend this workshop for naturalist, too. Denise Gibbs attended the Springhill workshop, too.
http://users.erols.com/robgibbs/monarch/
She monitored Monarchs on the East Coast for years.