Butterflies released as part of Rathdrum's Monarch City program
Patrick Adair of WingsRising released monarch butterflies at Rathdrum's Children's Garden as part of an educational program. The City of Rathdrum became part of the national project called Monarch City in 2019 to raise awareness about how extremely low the monarch butterfly numbers are and how close to extinction they are.
Courtesy photo
A monarch butterfly raised in Athol lingers on a Jupiter's Beard flower (also called red valerian) after an educational program with WingsRising and the Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department Thursday in Rathdrum.
A large crowd gathered to watch monarch butterflies be released Thursday at Children's Garden in Rathdrum.
RATHDRUM — You may not know it, but Rathdrum is also known as Monarch City.
Since joining the Monarch City USA project in 2019, Rathdrum has been working to help recover the monarch butterfly population. The city's parks department has been planting milkweed, the primary food source for monarch caterpillars, to support more butterflies in the area.
On Thursday, the parks department partnered with WingsRising, a monarch butterfly nonprofit, for a special butterfly release at Children's Garden. Patrick Adair of WingsRising said the event drew a larger crowd than expected.
"It is always useful for all of us to stop a moment to ponder how important our beneficial pollinator friends are to us. We wouldn't have coffee or chocolate or scores of other foods without their diligent work in the fields," Adair said.
Next year, the city plans to release 100 butterflies for a more dramatic experience.
The parks department takes the project seriously, naming and tracking each monarch from caterpillar to adult butterfly. Currently, it is raising about 20 butterflies.
WingsRising manages the Washington State University investigative tag and release project in Idaho, raising up to 4,000 offspring of early migrators each year.
Adair warns, "If we do not have milkweed plants growing along the migratory corridors of the monarch from Mexico and California, we will have no monarchs in Idaho."
At events like the one at Children's Garden, WingsRising often distributes milkweed plants or seeds. Research is ongoing to identify large-scale regions needing restoration of indigenous milkweed and nectar plants for monarchs.
The city is partnering with the STEM Charter School next year to incorporate this program into its science curriculum. WingsRising hopes to create an immersive butterfly flight house and pollinator discovery center in the greater Coeur d'Alene area.
A monarch butterfly raised in Athol lingers on a Jupiter's Beard flower (also called red valerian) after an educational program with WingsRising and the Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department Thursday in Rathdrum.
A large crowd gathered to watch monarch butterflies be released Thursday at Children's Garden in Rathdrum.