DIGGING IT


Bees investigating a wingstem


Freshly planted monarch waystations dot the landscape around Hendersonville and on the three campuses of Blue Ridge Community College. The 100 square foot waystations sustain monarchs during their long trek home. Each spot   with nectar rich plants and shelter from predators and the elements. The oasis of milkweed serves as a calling card in-      visit to the mountains. In spring, BRCC students spy out the monarch eggs and


 of any that have been tagged. The tagged monarchs are closely monitored by citizen scientists, who help map their route and the stops they make along the way to their resting grounds in Mexico. Last year, Estela Romero, a monarch educator and jour- nalist who works in the over-wintering sanctuaries near her home in Angangueo, Michoacán, Mexico spoke to class- rooms and at public events during Monarch Month. Bailey mentioned one of the highlights of Romero’s visit, “We showed the IMAX movie,  to a ca- pacity crowd in the auditorium at Blue Ridge Community College.”  - ies in Mexico during the 1970s. “But our speaker knew about them before the rest of the world did. Her family worked as shepherds and took their sheep through the sanctuary areas when she was a child.”


53


Beecatur chairperson Peter Helfrich talks to a third-grade class at Decatur’s Oakhurst Elementary School about human impacts on bees. Educational presentations like this one are a regular part of Beecatur’s programming.


© Amy Yarger


© Kit Prendergast


© Kit Prendergast


© Peter Helfrich


© Kim Bailey


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