(News Release)
LOGAN, OH – Visitors
to southeast Ohio’s Hocking Hills region this month have a one-of-a-kind
opportunity for hands-on immersion into the lifecycle of iconic monarch
butterflies.
A team of volunteer naturalists is tagging this year’s
bumper crop of the insect beauties – almost daily -- at the Hocking Hills Regional Welcome Center,
encouraging visitors to take part and experience firsthand the
uniqueness of monarch migration. Tagging and releasing the newly emerged
monarchs takes place nearly every day (except in the rain), depending
on their emergence.
Naturalists, with the
help of Hocking Hills visitors, place tiny, numbered sticky dots on
Monarch wings before they’re released. They can then be tracked and
logged on the Monarchwatch.org
website when spotted in other locations.
The practice helps researchers
learn more about monarch migration. The Welcome Center team ordered 500
tags, but very few remain as they used far more tags than anticipated.
“Monarch migration is
truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders,” said Ohio Certified
Volunteer Naturalist Andrea Jones, who spearheaded the program. “Huge
numbers of monarchs have been sighted in the Hocking Hills this year,
spending the summer and laying their eggs in Ohio before their offspring
pupate, emerge and instinctually take off to fly some 2,300 miles south
to Mexico for winter.”
Jones added that
beginning in early summer, monarchs stop in Logan, OH to refuel and lay
eggs for the next generation, with nearly 1000 caterpillars pupating in
the area from late summer to fall. During the chrysalis stage, Jones and
her team move the jade green chrysalides into the Welcome Center’s
educational monarch display for up to two weeks before the larvae
naturally emerge as adult butterflies. They’re then tagged and released.
The program will continue in 2019, with plans in place to expand the
garden and tagging operations.
 |
| Butterfly release (Handout photo) |
Unfortunately, this
natural marvel is threatened by habitat loss, with a more than 90
percent decline in monarch populations over the last 20 years serving as
an ecological red flag. Thus, the volunteer naturalists created the
Monarch Waystation at the Welcome Center by planting a butterfly garden
filled with nectar-producing flowering plans that attract the blazing
gold, yellow, orange, black and white insects. In addition, naturalists
planted milkweed, which inspires females to lay eggs by providing a rich
source of food for monarch larvae. Frequent rain this season fed a
prolific milkweed crop, resulting in an abundance of eggs. Jones
encourages travelers who visit to create butterfly habitat by planting
milkweed and native flowers in their own yards and natural areas at
home.
Monarch Waystation
Programs, like the one in the Hocking Hills, work together across North
America to study the decline of the monarch population by tracking
migration and encouraging conservation. Each fall, millions of monarch
butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to Mexico, Texas
and California where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a
return flight north in spring.
Located 40 miles
southeast of Columbus, Ohio's Hocking Hills region is marked by soaring
cliffs, craggy caves, rushing waterfalls and 10,000 acres of unbroken
forest woven with hundreds of miles of hiking trails. With an absence of
city lights and resulting extraordinary dark skies, the area is also
home to the John Glenn Astronomy Park.
These and a host of other
once-in-a-lifetime experiences emphasize nature, stewardship and
unplugged quality time with friends, family and loved ones. Unique gift
and antique shops, artists' studios, Appalachian music and moonshine,
hands-on activities, kayaking, canopy tours, eco tours and rappelling
add to the allure of the Hocking Hills as the perfect place to escape
and make meaningful memories. Complete traveler information is available
www.ExploreHockingHills.com or 1-800-Hocking (800-462-5464).
###
From:
Weirick Communications, Inc.
633 High St.
Worthington, OH 43085
(O) (614) 848-8380
(M) (419) 206-8429
@zoespilker
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