Ryall, M.E. (2008, April 16). Community event open to the public. Washburn Country Register, p. 19.

Community event open to the public
by Mary Ellen Ryall

SHELL LAKE — An Earth Day/Arbor Day planting event will take place Saturday, April 26, starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake. The habitat is located on the northern entrance to Shell Lake from Spooner along Hwy. 63, between CTH B and Memorial Park, two blocks from downtown Shell Lake on the lakeside.

Attendees will have an opportunity to help plant 55 bare-root native shrubs.  Butterflies love the nectar of ninebark, Juneberry and elderberry.  Girl Scouts from the Minnesota and Wisconsin Lakes and Pines have signed up to help.   Visitors are encouraged to bring a lawn chair and helpers to bring gloves and a shovel.

Shell Lake Parks and Recreation Committee and the Shell Lake City Council granted use of one-half acre of city land for the purpose of Happy Tonics Inc., to implement a Monarch Butterfly Habitat on May 14, 2007.  Last fall, Happy Tonics members planted native common milkweed seed, the only host plant of the butterfly.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service donated native nectar wildflowers and native grasses, and a representative from the Land and Water Conservation Department planted the seed in the fall of 2007.  The Native Wildflower and Butterfly Garden, with the help of tax-deductible donations, will eventually have an educational pergola, memory benches, a handicap access path, memory paving bricks and shrubs.  The Monarch Butterfly Habitat is to be completed by 2010.  
A ceremony will be held the day of the planting event. Respected Native American elders, John and Ginger Anderson, will perform an honoring ceremony for the butterflies, native plants and sustainability.  The site will be smudged to purify the habitat for its intended purpose of providing sanctuary for the monarch butterfly.  Four rocks with ribbons in the Ojibwe colors of white, yellow, red, and black will adorn the four corners to keep the space within sacred.  An offering of tobacco for the purpose of honoring all species will take place.  John Anderson will offer a sacred pipe ceremony with an Ojibwe prayer “Oh Great Spirit.”

Emilie Marie Nagel will be remembered, along with all other children.  Nagel is a butterfly baby who will have her naming ceremony this summer.  There will be an eagle feather dance, and Ginger will teach a butterfly song in Ojibwe.  An honor song/dance will also be performed. 

Mary Ellen Ryall, executive director of Happy Tonics, will give a short introduction about the organization and their work on behalf of the monarch butterfly and native plants.  Ryall founded the environmental and educational organization in 1999 in the Washington, D.C., area.  She became aware of the genetic manipulation of garden crop seed while participating in a community garden club in Lusby, Md., and decided to do something about it.  Ryall moved to Wisconsin in 2000 to attend Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College to study tribal culture, natural resources and ethno-botany. She graduated from the college in 2003.

An herbalist, master gardener, and certified food safety educator, Ryall became a one-woman advocate for educating the public about the environmental risks that the monarch butterfly faces on its international migration to Mexico and back to the U.S. and Canada each year.  In 2007, Happy Tonics became a nonprofit environmental and educational organization under the umbrella of the Shell Lake Chamber of Commerce.  The grassroots organization, with its growing professional volunteer staff and membership in 14 states, is dedicated to promoting sanctuary for the monarch butterfly and teaching the public about food safety issues and the risks of genetic engineering to the butterfly, global food supply and the environment.

Refreshments will be served at the Lakefront Hotel Bar and Grill.  Jim Richards, owner, will donated coffee and treats.  Diane Ericksen, Lakefront Events Committee, will hostess at the restaurant from 10:30 a.m. to noon.  If the weather is bad, visitors may come and go from the restaurant across the street from the habitat to keep warm and dry. — from Happy Tonics Inc.