04 Dec Monarch Butterflies Get A Helping Hand

Jenny narrates a video about Missourians for Monarchs, a group helping Monarch Butterflies and other pollinators survive in Missouri.

Jenny was delighted to work on this project. As a child one summer, she enjoyed tagging Monarchs. Although no older than 8 or 10, she vividly remembers the feel of their delicate wings while removing them from their temporary entrapment: a thin, mesh net on the end of a long wooden pole. She clearly recalls carefully pressing a micro-tracking sticker onto a wing — taking extra care as to not brush off too many dainty wing scales, which left a thin, dark powder on her fingertips. She didn’t want to harm the wing’s waterproofing or compromise the butterfly’s flight.

Next, biologists would track their migrations across North America and onto their wintering grounds in South America. Albeit a small mark in the greater work towards helping Monarchs, she and those butterflies are forever entangled into a net of important tracking data. This was part of nation-wide data collection that played a role in revealing just how impressive this butterfly’s treks truly are.

Today’s opportunity to narrate about the newly formed, Missourians for Monarchs working group, gives Jenny a sense of pride for her Missouri roots. As an adult with children of her own, her participation with Monarch butterflies has flown full circle.

This video has inspired her children, who wish to create their own plot of pollinator habitat in their Oklahoma back yard.