Along the monarch butterfly’s migration route, the habitat it needs to survive is disappearing. Rotarians are pledging to restore it
By Frank Bures
Link for entire article printed in October 2020 Rotarian Magazine
When Peg Duenow, of the Rotary Club of Lakeville, Minnesota, heard about Operation Pollination, she and her fellow club members decided it was something they could get behind. They approached the city of Lakeville, which located a "triangle of grass" in a park where the Rotarians could put in a pollinator garden. They applied for, and got, a district grant of $4,000.
With the district grant, along with funds from the city, a local watershed group, and nearby Rotary clubs, the Lakeville club had more than $14,000 to pay for plants, seeds, fencing, signage, and other needs. In the summer of 2016, the Rotarians went to work, preparing the site and planting the seeds for a dense patch of native plants, including wild lupine, tall blazing star, rattlesnake master, prairie onion, and butterfly weed (a type of milkweed). The city maintains the 8,000-square-foot garden, and the air is filled with bees and butterflies all summer long.