Miners Memorial Park dedicates butterfly garden

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood - There will hopefully be more butterflies in the Miners Memorial Heritage Park in the upcoming years, after the Friends of the Miners Park dedicated a butterfly garden in the park Wednesday.

The garden had been in the works since 2014, and is located on the park's Sisu Lane.

"We've chosen an area that's out along the Sisu Lane because it has water near it, and because skiers and other people walk past there all the time," Carol Erickson said at the beginning of Friday's dedication.

Organizers will continue to plant wildflowers and milkweed in the area to provide the necessary food for the monarch butterflies.

The garden is named after Ironwood resident Evelyn Bedore, who was instrumental in efforts to rehabilitate the city's Memorial Building in the '90s.

"We wanted to name this (garden) in honor, or memory, of a historical figure in the Ironwood community," Sharlene Shaffer said, unveiling a sign dedicated to Bedore and marking the garden as an official monarch butterfly way station.

Bedore died in 2007 at the age of 107, but was active in the community before her death.

"In 1992, she and Frances Nickel spearheaded the Woman's Club fundraiser to restore the beautiful stain glass windows in the Memorial Building," Shaffer said, reading from the sign. "Two years later she led the fight to keep the city from abandoning the Memorial Building and building a new city hall, she went on the radio twice a week begging for money to help save the building."

Sue Trull, a botanist with the Ottawa National Forest, spoke about the monarch butterflies during the event.

Trull called the species "iconic," saying how many people learned of the butterflies' migration from Mexico to the Midwest in elementary school.

She talked about the lifecycle of a butterfly, as well as its diet and range.

The species' population is declining, Trull said, and could end up being listed as an endangered species in the next several years.

There are a number of reasons for the decline, according to Trull - including habitat loss due to a series of bad winter storms in Mexico, reduced milkweed availability as the result of herbicides and a recent drought along the migration route in Texas.

While there are a variety of ways people can become active in helping the species, including growing milkweed for the caterpillars to eat.

"There used to be a lot of milkweed in this area, it's not there anymore because the way agriculture has gone," Trull said. "That's why we are looking for groups like you to plant milkweed."

"We need milkweed for the caterpillars, we need nectar plants for the adults," Trull continued.

Along with the garden, there is also "monarch databoard," where people can record information about butterfly sightings in the area.