CHASING MONARCHS
Biologist on 16k km trip
American field biologist Sara Dykman is tracing the round-trip migration route of the monarch butterfly, a daunting 16,000-kilometre journey on a pieced-together bicycle.
She rolled into Point Pelee National Park Tuesday on her wellworn ride complete with flaking paint and two kitty-litter bins strapped to the back as storage for her cookware and clothing
“I made my bicycle from recycled parts,” the 32-year-old adventurer said. “It’s sort of an anti-theft device. Durable and ugly is better. I’ve only locked it once and that was in New York City.”
Dykman spoke about her personal migration that started in a Mexican forest in March and will end in the same monarch sanctuary around the end of November.
“I’m a voice for the monarch,” Dykman told a crowd of 30 gathered inside the park visitors’ centre. “This is my dream and my way of helping, but all of us can do something. We can all be educators. We can all share this information.”
The monarch population has been in steady decline for a number of years due to loss of habitat and food sources.
Dykman took the crowd through her journey, known as the ButterBike Project, with a series of slides — some breathtaking — and a recurring plea to plant milkweed, “the only food source of a monarch caterpillar. The No. 1 thing we can all do to take care of the monarch is plant a garden. A little tiny garden goes a long way.”
Dykman endured a nine-hour climb up a mountain in Mexico to officially start her own personal migration route.
“I’m the first person to follow the monarch by bicycle,” she said. The trek north through the U.S. and into Canada had previously been done by plane and bus.
She witnessed the flight of millions of bats out of a Texas cave, endured black flies along the shores of Lake Huron and had a close encounter with a skunk.
“When you’re on a bike you can stop at a moment’s notice and explore all these secrets on the side of the road,” she said.
Dykman wound up in Point Pelee at the urging of local monarch enthusiast Darlene Burgess, who raises the butterflies on her Leamington property.
“Darlene heard about my trip and invited me,” Dykman said. “I try to go where the energy is. There’s certainly more of a network of monarch followers than I imagined. A lot of people are passionate and I think it’s only growing.”
Dykman has embarked on several adventures, all as a means of encouraging students both young and old to embrace lifelong learning and good stewardship of the planet.
She created the website www.BeyondABook.org as a means of sharing her adventurous education projects.
Over the past several years, she has cycled through 49 states, speaking to over 7,000 students about the diversity of the U.S. and the joy of seeing the country by bicycle.
She’s also completed a 13-state canoe trip and journeyed through parts of South and Central America.
Why not just teach these lessons in the comfort of a classroom?
“I think kids listen more when they see someone following their dreams,” said the Kansas City native. “They see you’re doing something unique and different and I think people are looking for something less ordinary. The bike helps draw people’s attention. It’s sort of a spotlight, and then you can fill them in on the details that matter.”
Dykman will give another public talk on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Mighty Oak elementary school in Lakeshore. Then she’ll cross the Windsor-Detroit border and continue her journey south.
“I tell people I haven’t seen a monarch every day, but I have seen a person who can help the monarch,” she said.