At the October 14, 2021, Naperville Park District board meeting, representatives from the DuPage Monarch Project presented the 2021 Jane Foulser Habitat Award to the Park District for its commitment to adding and caring for monarch habitat in parks.
Connie Schmidt, one of the volunteer leaders of the DuPage Monarch Project, cited the District’s long term plans to restore and stabilize pond and river shorelines with native plants and to convert underused turf areas to pollinator habitat. The District added 7.16 acres of pollinator habitat in 2021 and plans to continue adding native plant habitat each year.
DuPage Monarch Project is a volunteer-led organization with the goal of increasing public awareness of the plight of pollinators and advocating for increasing the amount of healthy habitat available for them. In 2016, Naperville Park District was among many public agencies that became signatories of the DuPage Monarch Project, meaning that they signed resolutions to preserve and promote monarch habitat. Since that time, Naperville Park District has added 5 monarch waystations, hosted a Monarch Festival, raised and released 175 monarch butterflies at Knoch Knolls Nature Center and has added more than 17 acres of pollinator habitat in parks across the community.
“We appreciate the work of DuPage Monarch Project in advocating actions that organizations and individuals can take to protect monarchs and other pollinators,” said Eric Shutes, director of planning. “Restoring diverse habitat for pollinators and other wildlife is an important part of our environmental stewardship.”
Updates and information about the District’s environmental initiatives can be found at www.napervilleparks.org/greeninitiatives.
Editor’s Note / During almost daily walks throughout May Watts Park, for many years we’ve enjoyed watching milkweed grow to welcome monarchs, noting their attraction to the tiny pink star-shaped flowers in the late spring and throughout the summer, as pictured at the top of this post.
This time of year, large seed pods have developed from the fertilized flowers. These proficient self-sowers split open to release hundreds of seeds attached to fluffy floss that blow with the wind. If you look closely, the other insect attracted to milkweed is the reddish-orange and black milkweed bug, coincidentally the same colors as the monarch butterfly.
Less harmful than they look, non-stinging and non-biting milkweed bugs simply live on milkweed, finding nourishment on the plant’s stems, leaves and pods.
The sucking insect with a one-month life span has one main drawback in that they can deform the pods, and if the infestation is large, crowd out Monarchs.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, “monarch butterflies typically live from 2 to 6 weeks except for the last generation of the year,” when they can live up to 8 to 9 months as they begin to migrate south in late September.
Milkweed bugs, all sizes, were plentiful on Oct. 18, 2021, but nary a Monarch butterfly was in sight.
Search “Monarch” on this website for more photos and how PN has been chasing the distinctive butterfly (sometimes mistaken for North American Viceroy) for years!
PN Photos taken at May Watts Park, 804 S. Whispering Hills.
