People of all ages and abilities are invited to Rowe Sanctuary on September 13th from 1:00-4:00 pm for Monarch Madness. This family-friendly event will include activities for  all ages. Participants will learn all about Monarchs and other butterflies and their life cycles. Participants will also be given the opportunity to catch Monarch butterflies and tag Monarchs in accordance with Monarch Watch’s tagging procedures. Nets and other equipment will be provided, and no prior experience is required. We recommend participants wear long pants and closed-toe shoes, sunscreen, and bring a water bottle!  

Monarch Watch  

Monarch Watch is a large-scale and long-range tagging community science project, that tags migrating monarch butterflies on their southward journey to their wintering grounds in Mexico. It helps to answer questions about the origins of monarchs that reach Mexico, the timing and pace of the migration, mortality during the migration and changes it in geographic distribution.  

Participants will help catch monarch butterflies and tag them with small lightweight coded stickers, record the coded information, identify the gender of the butterfly all before releasing them back into the wild to continue their migration South.  When done correctly, the stickers do not harm or impede the monarchs. People then report if they have found a tagged butterfly, which helps researchers to learn more about population numbers and migration patterns of this species.  

The more we know, the more we can help  

The data collected about the monarchs will be submitted used to guide our decision-making supporting not only healthy monarch and bumble bee populations, but all the organisms that provide all species the has the best chance of surviving.