For more than a year, the Meridian Council of Garden Clubs Inc. have promoted saving monarch butterflies in projects and programs.

The environmental impact of losing the monarch began after reading an article in the National Garden Clubs Inc., quarterly magazine, The National Gardener, in June 2006. Habitat loss, indiscriminate spraying for West Nile Disease and weed abatement, farming, urbanization, deforestation, and our own all-too-human apathy are killing the Monarch butterfly population faster that it can reproduce.

Monarch populations is down to 25 percent of its former numbers in only five years. National Garden Club members from Canada to South America were working in concert to help reverse the loss of this irreplaceable species. The Council decided to join this worthy cause and adopted the”Save the Monarch Butterfly” as the club theme for the 2006-2207 club year.

The council set the following objectives to accomplish the “Save the Monarch” project:

• Plant butterfly gardens that included “Asclepias tuberosa,” the host plant of the monarch.

• Promote the study and appreciation of our national insect — the monarch butterfly — in all council programs and projects. Each month had a different “Monarch Moment” that featured plants and information on saving this butterfly.

• To educate and involve all members and the public, especially youth, in how they can get involved in this project.

• To purchase and plant “Ascelpias tuberosa” (butterfly weed) in different locations across our country and state.

• To do our part to help reverse the loss of the monarch butterfly population.

This project enabled the council to spread the warning about the possible loss of our national insect across the state of Mississippi. With the help of the Van Zyverden Company, we were able to place more than 40 Ascelpias tuberosa plants in gardens all over the Southern Pines District. The plants were given to clubs that attended the district spring workshop in Meridian.

Many of the clubs used the plants in butterfly gardens that were planted with children. Five hundred seeds of the Ascelpias tuberosa were also given as favors in handmade seed packages with planting instructions. Plant The Earth, a local garden center, made the plants available to the public for sale along with information on how they could help with this project.

The Lauderdale County Welcome Center at Toomsuba also distributed hundreds of pamphlets and had educational displays on the monarch during the month of June. The council collected photos and information on butterflies, especially the monarch and placed them in a scrapbook that was given to the Beverly Living Center with a butterfly weed for their garden.

Two butterfly gardens were established by the council, one at the Meridian Community College’s Magnolia Hall and another at the Plum Point subdivision. The group completed this project by replanting the butterfly garden at Calvary Christian School on Oct. 29. The council also donated butterfly color books to the school as well as other information of the monarch butterfly.

The council will continue to promote butterflies by planting native plants. The Ascelpias tuberosa is a native plant in Mississippi.

“Plant Natives Today For Our Gardening Future” is the council theme for 2007-2008. The group will educate the public on the benefits of planting and using native plant materials, as well as removing invasive plants from our gardens and community.

An invasive plant is a species that in non-native or alien to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm to human health. Invasive species are the No. 1 threat to native biodiversity on unprotected lands. Invasive plants are spreading over approximately 1,729,730 acres per year of U.S. wildlife habitat. Find safe alternatives to invasive plants by learning about natives in your area. Visit www.wildflower.org.



• Report submitted by Paula G. Grayson