Bruce Matter looks over one of the areas designed for the Monarch butterfly at the Purdue Extension office in Hancock County. Greenfield Master Gardeners have set up a Monarch 911 committee to protect the monarchs.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — It’s been 18 months in the making, but a Monarch Waystation in Greenfield now serves as a welcome layover for the colorful butterflies making their annual pilgrimage to Mexico and back again.
Local master gardener Bruce Matter set the plan in motion in early 2022, reaching out to fellow gardeners for help creating a nurturing habitat for the endangered species.
He dubbed the project Monarch 911.
Now an assortment of milkweed, cone flowers, lavender and other beneficial plants attract the butterflies to a garden designed specifically for them, in the green space outside the Purdue Extension Hancock County office in Greenfield.
On Thursday, July 27, extension educator Lais McCartney will present Matter and his fellow volunteers with a plaque designating the space as a certified Monarch Waystation recognized by Monarch Watch, a volunteer-based organization that tracks the fall migration of the monarch butterfly.
“I am proud of the work the Master Gardener volunteers in creating this waystation,” said McCartney, who said the endangered butterflies can use all the help they can get.
“Monarchs are the poster child of other native pollinators, especially regarding habitat loss,” she said. Protecting them protects the local ecosystem, she added, which in turn helps local wildlife flourish.
Matter grew increasingly concerned about the monarchs when he noticed a number of large-scale industrial and warehouse buildings popping up on the west side of Greenfield in recent years.
“I felt really discouraged that all of a sudden Hancock County became urbanized, and there was no place for pollinators to go. The warehouses and urbanization didn’t leave any space for the bees and butterflies and all the insects to live,” he said.
Preserving the monarchs is essential to preserving the world as we know for future generations, said Matter, a Greenfield retiree with two grown children and two grandchildren.
“My kids attended Mt. Comfort Elementary (in the 1990s), and it was all open fields around there. Now it’s just a speck amid all the warehouses,” he said. “We have to strike a good balance between nature and progress, and unfortunately we didn’t do that over on the west side of Greenfield.”
According to Monarch Watch, sprawling development as well as the widespread use of herbicides on croplands, pastures and roadsides have been wiping out milkweeds and essential nectar sources since the monarch butterfly population was last thriving in the 1990s.
The nonprofit states development in the U.S. is taking over habitats for monarchs and other wildlife at a rate of 6,000 acres or 9.4 square miles each day — or 2.2 million acres each year
According to MonarchWatch.org, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies throughout Northern American take to the skies and head to the mountains of Central Mexico each fall. They are most commonly spotted throughout Indiana in August and September.
“The monarch migration is truly one of the world’s greatest natural wonders,” the website states, “yet it is threatened by habitat loss at overwintering grounds in Mexico and throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada.”
The nonprofit encourages groups and individuals to take matters into their own hands by creating Monarch Waystations to provide the nectar and nourishment monarchs need to survive.
Matter reached out to fellow master gardeners in early 2022 to create a local waystation, and Monarch 911 was born.
Last September, the group hosted a public education session at the Hancock County Public Library in Greenfield, where experts shared tips on how to create a natural habitat for monarch butterflies and gardens gave away milkweed pods to help guests start their own backyard butterfly habitats.
Rushville resident Helen Steussy shared how she and her husband manage 33 acres of native meadow plants to support local pollinators.
“We got a lot of ideas and tips from her,” said Matter, who has helped distribute roughy 2,000 packets of milkweed seeds since Monarch 911 began.
A monarch information station has been set up in the Purdue Extension Hancock County office to teach the public about the importance of creating local habitats.
Matter is hoping an increasing number of local residents take on the challenge of planting a few plants and giving monarch butterflies a helping hand.
For more information on how to create a backyard habitat, visit MonarchWatch.org/waystations.
