WOODSTOCK—Saving the monarch butterfly from extinction means promoting plants that support its annual journey from Mexico, through the United States to Canada, say members of the Care of Creation Team at Resurrection Parish in Woodstock.
It’s all about saving our common home, as promoted by Pope Francis, said team member Mary Taradash during an Earth Day celebration at the church April 17.
“We can take on the care of creation as a parish, and as individuals. Earth Day just made an absolutely ideal time to bring attention to this. The monarch was becoming extinct. One church can make a difference,” she said.
The Care of Creation Team distributed packets of milkweed seeds to be spread in wild areas. The monarch needs such weeds in order to nest along its route.
Those who arrived at all Masses, April 17 were asked to sign pledge cards to help this species of butterfly by promoting its temporary habitats.
The bright orange pledge cards hung on strings in a tent outside of the church, fluttering in the breeze like the insects they are intended to support.
Saving the habitat of the fragile butterfly is an important part of protecting the environment, Taradash said.
“It takes four generations to travel from Mexico to Canada and that journey takes a year,” she said, “so pulling milkweed from gardens can negatively affect the monarchs.”
Larry Fischer, a member the Care of Creation Team, said the effort to support the earth is important and the monarch project is a part of that effort.
According to information distributed at the information tent, Monarch Watch Director, Chip Taylor, of the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico, in the years 2013 and 2014, the forest area occupied by overwintering monarch colonies in Mexico dipped to its lowest number ever recorded.
However that number has improved greatly since then, Taradash said.
Karen Dombrowski, also a Care of Creation Team member, said that news is encouraging.
“The good news is because of all the care and the projects we have done in the United States and in other countries too, we have been able to bring back the monarchs. The numbers have actually gone up. Something can be done with a lot of effort,” Dombrowski said.
Jarod Baker, a junior at Woodstock High School, was invited by Fischer to show his butterflies, bugs and moths displays at the Care of Creation tent. He has been collecting for nine years and plans to study forensic entomology at college.
Some of the beetles in the displays have complex systems such as one called the devil’s coach horse, which is similar to the bombardier beetle that expels acid, he said. His collection is from all over the nation, including some giant grasshoppers from Florida.
“Everything is interconnected,” Baker said.
Studying the butterflies’ dramatic and fragile life cycle can help people understand the importance of treating nature with respect, said Brother Christopher Trimpe, the business manager at Resurrection. And they could be lost.
“When the butterflies are gone, they are gone,” he said.
The church’s Peace and Justice Ministry has embraced the pope’s encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’,” which talks about supporting the earth’s ecosystem.
The group earlier held a two-day symposium attended by about 100 people. Quakers, Presbyterians and Lutherans participated along with the Catholic hosts.
The peace and justice group was presented with the Environmental Defenders of Mc Henry County’s 2015 Theta Award for its work to support the earth.
“The peace and justice committee did a follow up on how to become a ‘green’ parish. One church can make a difference,” Taradash said.
The group now is putting an emphasis on energy efficiency, building enhancement and more recycling, while also supporting the work to help the delicate migrant butterflies on their journeys across the continent.