MANITOWOC COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A project in Manitowoc County is taking flight once again this summer.
The Neustadter Nature Center at Collins Marsh is working on its Monarch Butterfly Project.
It’s an effort to save the monarch butterfly population and educate others on how to help.
Eggs are laid on milkweed, and the leaf of the milkweed can be gently picked off the plant and put into a habitat with soil and other vegetation. The monarch caterpillars need milkweed for food, too.
After the caterpillar goes through the chrysalis phase and turns into a butterfly, the wings of the butterfly will need to dry for about two hours before it is released.
According to Janet Brandes at Neustadter, the monarch population is on the rebound in Wisconsin.
She is working to raise monarchs at the nature center.
“We need to get the population up because they have a loss of habitat,” said Brandes. “Even the firs in Mexico are being poached and cut down.”
Neustadter says it’s not hard to raise butterflies, and if everybody raised 10 butterflies a season the population would expand.
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