Hoping for a butterfly effect
Volunteers in communities across Canada turning their yards into safe havens for native insects
In a few short weeks, Butterflyway Rangers will see pollinators flutter in for the return of spring.
Volunteers in hundreds of communities across the country will turn their yards into safe havens for butterflies — such as the famous monarch — as well as native bees and other insects. The rangers are volunteers with the Butterflyway Project, a campaign run by the David Suzuki Foundation.
“The goal of the butterfly project is to create local butterflyways, which is a made-up term used to describe a network of at least a dozen gardens filled with native wildflowers in a neighbourhood or community,” explains Jode Roberts, a butterfly expert at the foundation.
The project started in Toronto in 2017 and has grown wildly from a couple of dozen volunteer Butterflyway Rangers in five communities to more than 1,000 in more than 300 communities. So far this year, the program has 600 applicants, Roberts said.
Allison Murray, a gardener in the Guildwood area of Scarborough, started with the project in 2018. She said she had been interested in native plants for years as she volunteered at the Toronto Botanical Garden, attended lectures and did her own research.
When she found out about the project, it made sense for her and the community to get involved. “We’re a in prime migratory route for monarchs and many different kinds of birds. It’s a community of gardeners,” Murray said.
She recruited about 30 people to join her, and the community is now in its fifth year on the project.
“It was just basically about spreading the word about the importance of native flowers, native wildflowers, native plants in general, that includes trees and shrubs, and try to educate people about the importance of it. The native plants and the native insects all kind of evolved together, and they are mutually dependent on each other.”
Getting native insects to come back to gardens across Canada is a main reason the David Suzuki Foundation began the project, Roberts said. “We noticed from research that there’s been this alarming, quiet, dramatic decline of insects over the past 30 or 40 years. We’ve seen now 45 per cent of insects globally are threatened with extinction. We don’t notice these small little critters in the background until they disappear.”
So, have the Butterflyways made a difference? “It’s tough to gauge the impact on butterfly species because there is so little baseline data on what insects live in our communities,” Roberts said.
“What we do know is that there is more interest in native plant gardening than ever before and more local planting projects. So the hope is that as we continue to create habitat, the abundance of beneficial insects will follow.”
For Arylnne McGrath of Antigonish, N.S., the project is a way to battle her anxiety around climate change.
“As somebody who is very concerned about the state of the world, for a really long time, I have felt powerless to do anything. But with this project, I thought ‘I can do this. I can tend to my own little piece of Earth. I can help my help my neighbours, and I can affect change here.’ ”
McGrath secured funding from a local credit union and used the money to build pollinator gardens at local non-profit agencies and public spaces. She said she created at least 54 gardens and grew enough plants to give away to other community members.
“It’s very empowering to see that you can make a difference.”
Gardeners like Gwen Chapman go all out; she even names some of the caterpillars in her care. “My first monarchs that I had last year, I raised them in a pickle jar. So, I named him ‘Pickles.’ ”
Chapman also runs the Brantford Butterflyway Project Facebook group, where almost 900 other gardeners come together to share tips, memes and progress in their own gardens.
She hopes to expand the project into local schools. She’s already introduced it to her Sparks, a Girl Guides unit. She explained that anther gardener had planted dill, the host plant of the eastern black swallowtail. She found a caterpillar on the dill, then showed it to the girls. Much like Chapman would with her own caterpillars, the Sparks named it “Stripey Clover.”
Chapman used Facebook to regularly post updates about its growth into a chrysalis, then transformation into a butterfly.
“They thought that was just the best thing ever. They were so happy. They didn’t get to personally do it, but I kept them in the loop.”
Roberts says his summers as a child were filled with monarchs. He explained that after the summer, monarchs migrate to Mexico and winter there.
“Science can’t explain how they do that, how they know how to travel that far. So, butterflies are a pretty easy conversation starter. That’s part of the reason that the Butterflyway Project is connected to butterflies.
“A lot of people have some fear of insects or stings from bees or wasps. Would you get a tattoo of a wasp? Probably not. But butterflies are cool.”
Prospective Butterflyway Rangers should apply to join the project by Sunday.
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I can do this. I can tend to my own little piece of Earth. I can help my help my neighbours, and I can affect change here.
ARYLNNE MCGRATH
B U T T E R F LY WAY PROJECT VOLUNTEER IN ANTIGONISH,