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the New Lenox Patriot | September 7, 2017 | 17
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From the Assistant Editor
Conservation and science in your own backyard
Amanda Stoll
a.stoll@22ndcenturymedia.com
I
don’t even particularly
care for most insects,
although I do understand
the importance of them in
the environment.
I don’t wear clothing with
butterflies on it, and I don’t
think I ever really did as a
child. And, I would never
consider getting a butterfly
tattooed on my skin.
But, man, I love butterflies.
I dressed up as a monarch
butterfly once for trick-ortreating
for Halloween. My
mom would make costumes
for us every year, and I
swear every year they were
just as elaborate as the next.
Two years later, that
costume got used for my
sister’s second grade class
play, “The Garden Show.”
The costume was a huge
orange poncho, so when I
stretched out my arms the
NFYN
From Page 16
that she realized she could
use those interests for good.
When her children were
young, she would sometimes
find a monarch caterpillar
in the yard and bring
it in, nurture it and watch
it emerge from its chrysalis
with her family as an educational
activity.
Now, however, she is doing
it on a bigger scale to
try to help the population
rebound.
brightly colored and painstakingly
accurate vein and
dot patterns on the wings
looked like something from
a Broadway musical.
Or so I felt every time
I put on that costume. My
sister and I played dress-up
with our friends and that costume
was always a favorite.
The felt dots fell off, and
my mother glued them back
on. I even tried to squeeze
myself into the costume during
college when my parents
moved, and I found the
costume in the basement.
Obviously I was not the
same size as I had been, but
I guess my love for butterflies
had never changed.
This week I interviewed
Kay MacNeil, a Frankfort
resident who has spent years
nurturing monarch butterflies
in her home. It started
as an educational tool for
her children, but now she
does it as her own way to
help monarch populations
recover from a nearly 90
percent population decrease
in the last two decades.
During that hour I
saw caterpillars turn into
chrysalides and butterflies
emerge with wrinkled wings
— well, almost. Those little
guys are fast and before we
knew it, he was out!
The monarch butterfly
has been the state insect of
Illinois since 1975, but its
numbers have been steadily
and alarmingly declining in
recent years because of loss
of habitat. In 1996, there
were an estimated 1 billion
monarch butterflies. In
2013, there were 33 million.
The milkweed on which
the caterpillars feed and the
butterflies lay their eggs is
frequently mowed, leaving
the monarchs nowhere to
go.
As part of the Garden
The interview has brought
back so many memories
for me. I think it was also
second grade when we did
the exact project in our
classroom.
It was a great learning
experience then, but even 20
years later I found myself
learning things I didn’t
know about monarch butterflies.
In college, I changed my
major multiple times and
spend my sophomore year
as a biology major with a
journalism minor. I ended
up changing my major the
following year. Even as a
journalism major; however,
I couldn’t bear to drop the
biology, so I kept it as my
minor.
Learning about the life
cycle of the monarch, and
all butterflies and moths,
really, is a great learning
experience. It’s one project
I sure hope they do in the
New Lenox schools — and
not just for elementary
school students, either.
I think there is something
for everyone to learn, and
I think learning is the first
step in caring.
Monarch butterflies are
not currently protected under
the Endangered Species
Act, but there is a petition to
Clubs of Illinois Milkweed
for Monarchs program,
which MacNeil started three
years ago, volunteers distribute
and plant milkweed
seeds of many varieties
in their personal gardens.
They also partner with local
municipalities and organizations
to plant milkweed in
larger areas and along roadsides.
Reporting by Amanda Stoll
Assistant Editor. For more, visit
FrankfortStation.com.
have them listed as “threatened.”
There aren’t usually
a lot of ways for the average
person to help out species
that are in need, but helping
monarchs is an easy one.
Planting milkweed in
your yard or along a roadside
helps give monarchs
back some of their habitat,
and even though MacNeil is
very hands-on with raising
the insects, it is not necessary
to be.
So, consider planting
milkweed in your yard,
or talking to your child’s
teacher about doing the
project in their classroom.
Hey, they might even like
some help with it if you
have the time.
Milkweed seeds are available
through MacNeil, who
is the bee, bird and butterfly
chairperson for the Garden
Clubs of Illinois. Call her at
(815) 469-1294. She’d love
to hear from you.
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