Butterfly Corner

May 8—Northwood School, Minong, WI. I met with Shelby Ausing, parent of students at Northwood School, Josh Tomesh, principal, and Jean Serum, Administrator. The school is implementing a Butterfly Garden on school property. I chose the site based on a gently sloped terrain. The property has native hazelnuts, chokecherry, and Juneberry growing naturally in the background near red pines. The open sandy land is visible from Route 53. The land base is between ½ acre for restoration and up to 1 acre for total habitat. It flanks the school entrance driveway and parking lot. The habitat will be within easy access for students to walk to from grade school and charter school. The habitat will be used as an outdoor classroom.

While walking the site, I pointed out two native wild strawberry colonies—pussy toes, host plant of Painted lady butterfly, and violets, host plant of Fritillary butterfly. Minor invasive spotted knapweed was evident and will need to be eradicated. The area has been mowed, which will be discontinued to allow native habitat to emerge. Happy Tonics will work in liaison with the school. We will advise with conception, landscape design, planning, planting, and maintenance. Northwood School is an average of eight miles, round trip, from my home in Minong.

May 9—JoAnn Flanagan, from Oregon, OH, reports: “Saw several monarchs today down at the state park. Had the binoculars out—biggest week in birding there. People from over 47 states in attendance.”

May 10—Sophie Belisle of Shell Lake called in the first monarch sighting for Shell Lake. She has followed the monarch’s arrival in Shell Lake for two years. She received a jade butterfly ring, metal butterfly book mark, and my book, My Name is Butterfly, as gifts for her participation in this year’s monarch tracking.

Mike Carpenter, a habitat caretaker, had the shrubs weeded and open space was created around them. This will allow them to be visible from Route 63. A layer of wet newspaper and mulch will be added around the shrubs. Residents can use the same technique to kill weeds and allow air to get around shrubs and trees.

May 11—I saw my first male monarch today. He looked like he was in good shape. Milkweed is up in Minong. Mother butterflies don’t need much—only newly emerged milkweed to lay eggs on. Later in the afternoon, I saw a female monarch searching for milkweed. She will tap the leaves and taste the plant with feet to determine if it is truly milkweed.

Mike Jensen, of Lampert Lumber in Spooner, donated building materials for a garden shed, approved by City Council last fall. Happy Tonics, through a grant from Wisconsin Environmental Education, matched 50 percent of the donation. Bob Forsythe, Technical Education Department, and students at Shell Lake School are building the shed. We are thrilled that Mr. Forsythe and students took the project on as community outreach. To learn more about Lampert Lumber Community Giving, visit http://lampertlumber.com/about/community-involvement.