On Saturday Curt Coffman, dean of Vincennes University’s College of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, worked with officials and volunteers with the Knox County Soil and Water Conservation District and Pheasant and Quail Forever for the 6th annual Monarch Madness tagging event.
Monarch Madness is an event that allows the community to unite and work alongside each other at the Fox Ridge Nature Park, which has become a habitat for monarch butterflies since native species of plants and grasses have been allowed – and encouraged – to take over the grounds, formerly a golf course.
Participants are encouraged to catch as many monarchs as they can for tagging, but organizers also offered crafting opportunities as well.
The butterflies caught are tagged with small circular stickers, each with a unique number to track them on their migration journey. The process also checks them for parasites.
But attendance this year was down, meaning they were able to tag but a few.
“The monarch catching was a little less today,” Coffman said. “Around 20 butterflies were caught, but I expect that number to go up through the last few weeks of September.”
Organizers continue to catch and tag butterflies throughout the month.
Monarchs are native pollinators which makes them important for agriculture here in Knox County.
Coffman said, “It’s essential to have nature parks like Fox Ridge to allow the monarch to have a place to stay. With the monarch population decreasing over the years events like this are important.”
“Also, Knox County is big on watermelons, and without monarchs to pollinate them, there will be no more”
The monarch butterfly is a unique insect. Unlike other butterflies, the monarch is not capable of surviving through the winter, so they migrate from as far north as Canada all the way to Mexico.
Coffman said,” Something in their brain just clicks, and then they head off south.”
He also said, “It is really impressive how far monarchs fly during migration, they travel 50-100 miles a day, and on top of that, it’s even more impressive considering the butterflies don’t really fly straight. They are a little unsteady.”
SWCD Natural Resource Specialist Ben Burke and VU student Eden Elpers were working together to tag butterflies. Both stated that events like this are important, not just to bring people together but to educate them in a fun way on why monarchs are important to the environment.
