River Prairie Group Partners with Immigrant Solidarity DuPage to Improve Monarch Butterfly Habitat

By Bruce Blake

Last year, our River Prairie Group and Immigrant Solidarity DuPage landscaped and planted a Monarch Butterfly garden with native plants at the Glenside Public Library in Glendale Heights. The native plants that were used would attract, provide nectar, and allow Monarchs to lay eggs on milkweed. The Monarchs have been declining for many years through loss of habitat. Milkweed is the only plant that they will lay eggs on.

Jeff Gahris and I met with Cristobal Cavazos, Gabriela Hernandez Chico, and Rafael Vieyra from Immigrant Solidarity to work together on this project. Immigrant Solidarity is a local group in Dupage County that has many programs for promoting Latino culture. Mr. Cavazos and his team of volunteers work hard to involve people in their community. We had a meeting with Tom Bartenfelder, Director of the Glenside Library, who had such a positive attitude toward giving us a small section on the Library’s grounds to plant this garden. The plants we put in last year came up and bloomed fantastically! You could see lots of Monarchs and other butterflies. We would like to thank Mr. Bartenfelder and his staff for their wonderful cooperation.

This year, Mr. Bartenfelder asked if we could expand the garden around the building. We met with Jenifer Umlauf, a professional landscape designer and owner of Glen Ellyn Landscape Design, to come up with a professional design for the garden. The Glenside Library would cover the cost of design, planting materials, and some plants. Prairie Wind Native Plants donated the other 96 plants.

On a September afternoon, Jeff and Bonnie Gahris, from the River Prairie Group, joined Gabriela Hernandez Chico, her sons Isaac and Josue’, and her daughter Naomi, along with Sugeira Tellez, Sophia Mora, and Luis Mora, of Immigrant Solidarity,  to plant over 200 native forbs and grasses. We finally finished planting a few hours later, then mulched and watered. It should look great next year. The Library installed a bench after we finished.

The Monarch Butterfly is very important in Latino culture. The celebration of Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead)  remembers and honors those departed. It is a huge festival and coincides with the Monarchs returning to overwinter in Mexico on their migration route. The Monarchs are symbolic of the dead spirits returning home.

Immigrant Solidarity sponsored a Monarch Festival in Glendale Heights in August. Several hundred people attended with great food, music, and entertainment. Members of the DuPage Monarch Project were invited to join them. Bonnie Blake, Judith Horsley, and I were there to answer question about Monarchs. We were pretty busy answering questions from “Where do monarchs go in the winter?” to “Do butterflies bite?”

Interested in getting a native garden growing in your community? Give me an e-mail  - rllnstns1@aol.com