Come Help the Butterflies!!
Monarch butterflies are vital ecological components that act as key pollinators for wildflowers, support biodiversity, and serve as a crucial food source for various predators. As a "flagship" or indicator species, their population decline highlights broader environmental issues, including habitat loss and pesticide overuse. Our park provides milkweed beds to support monarchs through their life cycle, and we need your help monitoring and documenting this process!
No prior experience is necessary to join in this effort. The Assistant Superintendent (Kaitlyn Korblick) and Lead Naturalist (Becca Zajac) are currently preparing an orientation for potential volunteers, which is upcoming for the late summer.
If you are interested in attending an orientation session, which lasts about 1 hour, please respond to this posting. From then, if you are interested in becoming a volunteer, you will be given days/times to choose from for your monitoring.
Once you are oriented and trained, you will observe the designated milkweed beds once per week for roughly 1 hour, ideally on the same day each week. The active season for monarchs is from May to September.
You report your hours to our Manager of Volunteers (Nancy Kersey) and communicate with the Naturalist and Asst. Superintendent with any other concerns. Once the 2026 season concludes, you will be invited to continue volunteering with us in summer 2027.
For more information about the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, visit: https://mlmp.org
Email Manager of Volunteers Nancy.Kersey@delaware.gov. Thank you.
