THUNDER BAY -- Volunteers assisted by the City of Thunder Bay will begin work at Boulevard Lake this spring on Thunder Bay's largest monarch butterfly and pollinator garden.
The city has given permission to the people involved in the Urban Greenscapes initiative to use a vacant piece of municipal property about 1100 square meters in size.
Urban Greenscapes coordinator Dan Fulton says the city Parks and Open Spaces department is very supportive, and will help prepare the site.
The location is at the south end of Adelaide Street, adjacent to the recreational trail and not far from the Boulevard Lake dam.
In an interview with Tbnewswatch, Fulton said the monarch butterfly population in North America has been decimated by a loss of habitat over the last 20 years.
"We're trying to build up the population, and part of that is by developing habitat for them," he said.
A main component of the garden will be milkweed, the butterfly caterpillar's food source, but it will also include other wildflowers, mostly native species, such as Echinacea, Goldenrod and New England aster.
"The butterflies can feed on anything, and it's going to be a pollinator garden for the bees and other insects," Fulton said. "By looking after the monarchs, you end up looking after everything else at the same time."
Monarchs migrate from Canada or the U.S. to Mexico to spend the winter, travelling as far as 5,000 kilometres, and return in the spring.
Fulton said many Thunder Bay homeowners have already planted milkweed, and the city has done so in locations such as the stormwater rain garden on Memorial Avenue near High Street, and at the Centennial Conservatory.
The one near Boulevard Lake "will be the biggest by far."
Fulton said individuals wishing to volunteer for planting and maintaining the garden can do so through Urban Greenscape's Facebook page.
He's also working with the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority, and will be hosting Monarchs For Beginners classes at the LRCA offices starting later this month.
"You wouldn't believe how many people are interested" in preserving the monarch butterfly, Fulton said.
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