Help Make a Butterfly

By C.J. Hirschfield

Around this time last year, it felt like Fairyland was running a drug operation. Dozens of people would come to our door and say that Jackie sent them; they were here to pick up the plants. 

The plants weren’t marijuana, they were milkweed – the food that monarch caterpillars need to undergo their dramatic transformation into butterflies.

Success!

Our scores of volunteers helped us find and treat monarch eggs and milkweed to prevent against disease, fostered the caterpillars at home (1,200 last year), and then released them near our park.

Well, it’s that time again, and Fairyland horticulturist Jackie Salas is sending out the word: Lake Merritt monarchs need your help! Do you have what it takes?

Here’s how we got involved in the first place. First and foremost, we love butterflies. We also love teaching urban kids about the rich ecosystem that exists all around them.

Monarch caterpillars preparing for their chrysalis phase.

Lakeside Park, where Fairyland lives, has an overwintering and breeding monarch butterfly population. This is both good and bad news: good because monarch butterfly numbers are increasing, bad because with the increase in numbers there has been an increase in pathogens that harm the butterflies.

In order to keep the population healthy, we have developed a cleaning protocol to keep the butterflies safe, which we follow in our Monarch Magic breeding program. We collect insect eggs and food, and bleach them in specific concentrations to eliminate pathogens. The caterpillars that hatch from the eggs are raised in terrariums until they reach adulthood. Adult butterflies are tested for the pathogens by our friends at the University of Georgia’s Project Monarch Health before they are released into the wild. (We hope to learn to test them ourselves this year!)

Monarch caterpillar in Fairyland gardens.

And here’s what we need.

We’re looking for dedicated adult volunteers (18+) to help. A mandatory training session will cover the details of how to perform the essential duties, such as locating monarch eggs (they’re so small!), bleaching eggs and bleaching the caterpillars’ milkweed food source.

This year we will host two training sessions; potential volunteers must attend one of the trainings. The trainings will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, and 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11. The volunteer commitment begins with the training session and continues with weekly two-hour volunteer sessions through mid-December. 

Kim Abbott, who retired from a career with the U.S. Department of Energy overseeing safety compliance at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs, is returning as a Monarch Magic volunteer this year. “At first I wasn’t finding eggs,” he recalls, “but once I knew what I was looking for, I saw them all over the place!”

Healthy monarch butterflies just before they're released into the wild.

Kim likes knowing that he’s helping the monarch population survive, and adds that his volunteer time brings him a lot of pleasure. He particularly likes knowing that some of “his” eggs end up as caterpillars fostered by local schools and senior centers.

If you are interested in helping monarch butterflies and can commit to volunteering two hours a week with this program, please email Outreach@fairyland.org. Please include your reason for interest in the program, and any gardening or entomological (insect) experience you have. 

If you can’t commit to volunteering but would like to be added to our list of “foster families” that take clean caterpillars home to raise, please email horticulture@fairyland.org. 

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 15 years as executive director of Children’s Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation’s first storybook theme park.