Dryden, D. (2007, April 18). Butterfly gardens. Washburn County Register, p. 17.

Butterfly gardens

By Diane Dryden

SHELL LAKE - Mary Ellen Ryall, the genius behind the new butterfly garden idea in Shell Lake is originally from the eastern part of the United States, Washington, D.C., to be specific. Life and circumstances have brought her to our area, and now she is living in Shell Lake. She has brought her unbridled passion with her.

Because Ryall cares passionately about what the people in the United States eat, she began studying our major crops like corn, wheat and rice and the genetic engineering of the food supply. The results were frightening. The study led her to the lasting dangers of herbicides and pesticides. Those findings were also dismal.

Enter the Monarch butterfly. Normally it would be hard to make the connection between the butterfly and corn, but there is a strong tie. The Monarchs are unable to feed or reproduce anywhere near pesticides or herbicides. Even if there are large stands of their natural host plants for reproducing, the milkweed plant, they will not frequent the field, and they may die if they ingest the poisons. “They are like the ecological thermometer indicators letting us know how we are willingly polluting our land and our food sources,” she says.

There is a strip of land owned by the city of Shell Lake that runs along the highway north of town. It starts at the old brown coal shed and goes all the way north to Farley’s Auto Body Shop. It’s approximately 35 feet wide and runs right beside the snowmobile trail on its east side. Much of the land slopes towards the highway.

Ryall thinks the land area is paved with gold in that it would be the perfect place to begin a butterfly garden. “Shell Lake can provide a native wildflower and butterfly habitat there. The monarch is under siege because pesticides and herbicides kill it. Genetically engineered corn pollen kills it, and cutting back plants along the road, which is main travel route of butterflies, deprives them of milkweed and nectar. Loss of agricultural land, development and urban sprawl also reduces the number of sustainable habitats.”

Ryall is suggesting a four-year plan of planting the entire area, one section at a time, in native trees, shrubs and flowers as a habitat for butterflies and other pollinators. She is also proposing natural paths of woodchips and eventually solar lighting. Pergolas would be provided for sitting to view the gardens, and benches would also be provided along the trail for seating.

The vegetation would provide a natural noise and dust barrier to the homes on the lake side of the trail, and the convenient dirt parking lot north of the flags would provide parking for buses and cars that would be visiting the gardens to see and learn about natural plantings and habitats.

“It’s called eco-tourism, and Shell Lake is strategically placed along the migration route, called the floral corridor, that runs 3,000 miles from Canada through the United States and then on to Mexico, the winter home of the butterfly.

“In July 2006, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico signed an accord to protect the monarch butterfly. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and Mexico’s Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources have designated 13 wildlife preserves as protected areas.”

Shell Lake can play an important part in the monarch migration which in turn puts Shell Lake on the map as a place to see and visit. Ryall envisions tours and shops, all tapping into the town’s involvement with this green movement that’s sweeping the entire nation.

“The gardens would provide photo opportunities, eco-learning for school kids and other groups, educational programs that bring people to town and the ability to package their visit with other attractions in town, including meals, could boost tourism in town,” she says. “We would also be included in the international movement for green space with no-care native plantings that would continue down to the highway changing the slope that’s difficult for the city crew to mow into a sea of native grasses, wildflowers and milkweed. It would encourage some of the 6,000 cars that travel through town daily to stop and take a look, not even mentioning how beautiful it would be just to look at.”

The city believes that this new project falls under parks and recreation, and Ryall is hopeful that the project will get a go-ahead soon. “All kinds of grants are available for this project, from amending prairie restoration, because the land was for years the old railroad bed and former prairie remnant for native seeds and plants, so it shouldn’t be too much of a financial stretch for the city.”

There is already a groundswell of interest in this project, and it has been suggested that Shell Lake think of forming a wildlife and garden club to assist in making Shell Lake the prettiest town in Wisconsin, from north to south and all the places in between.

Following is a letter sent to Ryall from one of the people that visited the butterfly sanctuary in Mexico this past winter and saw for herself how the butterflies have been devastated.

El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary

Thank you for arranging a trip to El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Angangueo, Mexico, 40 miles west of Mexico City through your organization Happy Tonics. This is a dream trip for me, so my husband, Joe and I make arrangement to participate in the fun. We fly to McAllen, Texas, from our winter home in Sun City, Ariz., to await early morning bus pick up for our Sanborn Tour. It takes us two long days of bus travel, with 36 congenial mates, through mountains and villages finally arriving at Angangueo, at the bottom of the 9,000-foot mountain where we will ascend in small vans the next day.

The “vans” turn out to be open cattle trucks with temporary hard benches along the sides. We climb on, bumping our way up a narrow dirt lane around and around the mountain. We pass school children walking down the mountain and small homes with turkeys, dogs and wash in the yard. There are tiny cultivated fields that also climb the mountain side at steep angles. We continue to bump along, higher and higher, dustier and dustier.

When the trucks can go no further, we begin our “stroll” up the final 1,000 feet, first on a dirt path to the Visitors Center, completed in the last two years, then up the 675 concrete steps in increasingly thinning air. Most of us use every single bench to stop, take deep breaths and rest our legs. It is an excruciating climb!

When we finally reach the forest, we notice large dusty gray leaves clustered, three feet in diameter, on boughs of pine trees. Upon closer scrutiny, we discover that these are the Monarchs, huddled one on top of the other, waiting for the morning sun to warm them enough to fly. We continue the climb up to the top, a meadow, in the sun, where a few butterflies flit.

The show takes place on the way down. Those dusty clumps become alive as the sun hits them. The outer layer peels off and flies away. The whole clump bursts open. I hear “swoosh” as hundreds of Monarchs simultaneously fly away in a dense cloud, dispersing over the mountainside. Now the butterflies are testing their wings, landing on branches, finding a mate. I remain detached, watching. I am not a part of the scene, as there are not enough butterflies to envelop me. Then we are out of the forest and back to the trucks. Ten years ago the meadow and sky were thick with Monarchs but not now. There were so many then that people had to be very careful not to step on them. The forest was much larger and lower on the mountain but there were no Visitors Center nor concrete steps. It was easier to walk on the dirt path. But with the deforesting of the trees and the floral corridors disappearing in the United States, there are fewer and fewer monarchs worldwide. Unless something is done, gone will be the days of walking through clouds of butterflies.

We’ll keep dreaming!

-Valerie J Downes and Joseph J. Lusco

March 2007