Butterflies

Climate change is too big an issue for any of us to approach on our own. Wildfires, heat waves, and floods are apocalyptic events that can only be addressed on a global level. We, both as individuals and a community, can make a difference at the local level, which then can effect change on a larger scale.

Here's a fairly easy way to make a big difference to our ecosystem -- supporting monarch butterflies in their life cycle and on their annual migration down to Mexico. Several organizations in Riverdale are working hard to make our neighborhood a Pollinator Pathway. To that end, there will be a milkweed giveaway this week at the Riverdale Y Sunday Market (see flyer below). Milkweed plants are the only ones that monarch butterflies lay eggs on and the only food that the caterpillars eat before their metamorphosis into butterflies. As humans encroach more and more on natural habitats, milkweed has become increasingly difficult for monarchs to find. Our goal is to increase the number of plants in our neighborhood to support monarchs.

Come to the Sunday Market to learn more about monarchs and other pollinators, and take a milkweed plant home to your terrace or yard.

Here are a couple of links about monarch butterflies
World Wild Life Federation and U.S Fish and Wild Life