Emily Weiser
A national strategy to monitor monarch butterflies will be topic of a talk during this year’s Spring Fling, which is set for Saturday, April 29, at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve in La Farge.
The KVR has designated 2017 as “Year of the Pollinator” and is holding programs focusing on this subject throughout the year.
U.S. Geological Survey biologist Emily Weiser will present the talk at 4:30 p.m., during a day featuring several activities and dinner.
Weiser is developing a national strategy to monitor monarch butterflies and the plants they need while breeding and migrating. Her previous work focused on research to improve management and conservation of birds in the Arctic and New Zealand.
Another highlight of the day will be “Interactive Hula Hooping,” which involves participation as well as demonstration, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Danielle Lee, who will lead the activity, began hooping in 2004.
“I love giving people the ‘tools’ — confidence and resources — to discover the joy of hoop dance themselves,” she said.
Lee teaches hoop dance classes and holds hoop jams at Madison Circus Space, which she founded. Due to her teaching, Madison was voted Community of the Year by Hooping.org in 2014.
Spring Fling is a fundraiser held jointly by Friends of the Reserve and the Richland Sister City Project with the Chacocente Wildlife Refuge in Nicaragua. Activities are open free to the public. The dinner cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children ages 6–12, and free for children 5 and under.
Youth Poets of Merit from the Earth Day Poetry Contest will read their work at 4 p.m., and a silent auction will be from 3–6:30 p.m. Dinner, featuring burgers and brats plus salads and desserts, will be served from 4:30–6:30 p.m. A family nature walk will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Other activities of the day are plant walk at 3 p.m.; fly-casting, 3–4 p.m.; llamas from Midwest Llama Packing, history hike, 4 p.m.; fly tying, 4 p.m.; Sister City presentation, 5 p.m.; bat chat, 7 p.m.; and stargazing, 8 p.m.
Butterfly gliders will be given to children, and seeds for plants that attract butterflies and bees will be available as long as supplies last.
For further information, go to kickapoofriends.org.
