The Monarch and Milkweed Project is in full swing once again this year! Our mission is to have Penn Hills join in an effort across North America to plant native milkweed to help the Monarch butterfly reverse it’s severe population decline. This is the only plant that the Monarch caterpillars eat and so it is completely dependent on this plant for it’s survival.
The Monarch butterflies are now preparing to depart from Mexico for their spring migration northward! Hopefully you planted some of the beautiful varieties of milkweed that the PHCDC’s Monarch and Milkweed Project gave away for free over the last three years. If you did, you will be providing much needed food to help reverse the population decline of our most well known butterfly. If you didn’t, you will have another opportunity to get some free milkweed plants this spring. We will once again be growing 1000 milkweed plants!
Each year, volunteers are needed to:
- Plant seeds in peat pots at the end of April
- Care for flats of seedlings by providing a sunny area indoors and some water
- Help at the Milkweed Give-Away in June at the Penn Hills Community Garden on Jefferson Rd.
Please contact program manager, Kathy Raborn, with any questions or if you’d like to volunteer to help support the program.
Kathy Raborn
e: PennHillsSTC@gmail.com
w: PennHillsSTC.org