DPU Nature Park celebrates award with monarch tagging

Thursday, September 13, 2018
Explaining the right and wrong way to hold a monarch butterfly, Aaron Stump of the Indiana Wildlife Federation educates the crowd prior to a monarch tagging event Thursday at DePauw Nature Park.
Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

To celebrate the asset that the DePauw Nature Park is to the community and the environment, the Indiana Wildlife Federation chose to highlight one of nature’s wonders Thursday evening.

After awarding the Nature Park the Gold Level Conservation Champion Award as part of the Certified Sustainable Trail program, IWF conducted a monarch butterfly tagging event, which was funded by the Duke Energy Foundation.

The tagging events are a way to educate youth and adults about the life cycle of the monarch by teaching them to gently catch the butterflies in nets and affix small numbered stickers to their hind wings.

The first monarch butterfly capture during Thursday’s tagging event at DePauw Nature Park receives its tag before being released to continue its trip to Mexico.
Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

The tags are ordered through the international monarch monitoring program Monarch Watch.

While monarchs traveling north from Mexico to Canada during the spring and summer typically live only about four weeks, those making the trip back south from September through November are known as the “super generation” because they live up to eight months.

The super generation is important to monarch tagging as the butterflies make the entire trip back to Mexico. By affixing a small numbered sticker to these butterflies — the data from these recaptures is then used to determine the pathways taken by migrating monarchs, the influence of weather on the migration, the survival rate of the monarchs.

Utilizing tag information from recovered butterflies (dead or alive) can give researchers a lot of important information on that specific butterfly’s flight route and origin.

In trying to catch the monarchs, members of the DePauw and Greencastle communities got to wander the trails of the Nature Park and see with their own eyes why it had received the award.

Among the goals of the Certified Sustainable Trails program are:

• To promote the conservation, enhancement, and restoration of wildlife habitat surrounding developed trail areas.

• To provide the four main components needed by wildlife: food, water, shelter, and a place to raise young.

• To preserve and enhance the natural diversity of Indiana’s habitats. This includes removing non-native and invasive species from the ecosystem and replacing them with a diverse selection of plants native to the region.

• To create an environmentally friendly corridor that provides access for humans without compromising the activity of wildlife.

The award recognized DePauw as a refuge for Indiana wildlife and its commitment to conservation and the health of the community.

As a member of the DePauw Sustainability Leadership and Environmental Fellows programs junior Donna Riner accepted the award on behalf of the university.

“This award signifies DePauw’s commitment to sustainability and conservation,” Riner said, “and also the commitment to the faculty, students and community. This has been years of commitment.”

Riner was also rewarded for her commitment by being the first person to catch a monarch as part of the event, though several people brought in butterflies they had caught earlier.

Tzouanakis third-grader Miles Jernagan had spotted the elusive monarch, but was unable to reach it, so Riner caught it with a net, and IWF Habitat Programs Coordinator Aaron Stump tagged the insect.

Jernagan had the joy of releasing the monarch and away it flew to the cheers of a crowd of onlookers.

“Now it’s tagged and on its way to Mexico,” Stump said.

Those who took part in the event also had the chance to share their email addresses for updates should any of the tagged monarchs be found on their trip south.

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