The 10th Annual Monarch Migration Festival returns to the Galesburg Lakeside Nature Center this Saturday, September 7th. This event, says University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Chris Enroth, is a free event geared towards the conservation of monarch butterfly populations.
“We do see that there is a decline when they go and migrate down to Mexico. They’re one of the few insects that do this, which makes them very unique and special in the natural world. Some of them travel up to 2,000 miles from Canada down to Mexico, and we see we lose a lot of them on that trip,” says Enroth. “But fortunately, what we see in Illinois is during those summer months, when we have scientists and other kind of conservation volunteers going out to do butterfly monitoring; we see fairly level, or year to year, fairly routine numbers, which means their populations are able to rebound in Illinois.”
The Monarch Migration Festival is taking place from 10an to 3 pm and will include education stations, nature/conservation-centered vendors, food, live music, and more.
