Inaugural Mountain Monarch Festival in Transylvania County to highlight butterfly's importance, decline

Rebecca Walter, Hendersonville Times-News
·2 min read
Gorges State Park in Transylvania County lies along the monarchs' migratory route south to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains.
Gorges State Park in Transylvania County lies along the monarchs' migratory route south to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains.

Gorges State Park in Transylvania County will host the first Mountain Monarch Festival in September to celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration and bring attention to the species’ declining numbers, according the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The inaugural festival is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the park’s visitor center. The park lies along the monarch’s migratory route. The butterflies can be seen in late September each year flying over the park’s visitor center on their way south to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, where they stay over winter until early spring.

The festival will offer educational programs and exhibits featuring the monarch butterfly, including monarch-themed children’s crafts, live music, a food truck, a festive photo board, local art for sale and a Monarch Migration Passport to lead families through monarch-themed activities. A keynote presentation will be offered by Heyward Douglas, an entomologist who has worked as a park naturalist and served on the Foothills Trail Conservancy’s board of directors since 1989. Douglas has visited the monarch’s wintering area in Mexico, according to a news release.

Admission, music and programs at the festival will be free.

Monarch butterflies have two sets of deep orange and black wings and a wingspan of three to four inches. Male monarchs have two black spots in the center of their hind wings. Each adult butterfly lives only about four to five weeks, according to the World Wifelife Fund. The monarch butterfly is known by scientists as Danaus plexippus, which in Greek literally means "sleepy transformation." The name evokes the species' ability to hibernate and metamorphize.

Monarch butterflies land on branches at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. On Thursday, July 21, 2022, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said migrating monarch butterflies have moved closer to extinction in the past decade “ prompting scientists to officially designate them as ndabgered."

The migratory subspecies of the monarch was recently added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “red list” of the most threatened species on Earth and is now listed as endangered. Those who wish to help monarchs return to healthy population levels can plant locally native milkweed and nectar flowers in their yards and support efforts to reduce pesticide use, according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The Mountain Monarch Festival is sponsored by Friends of Gorges State Park and organized in partnership with Monarch Watch, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, and N.C. Department of Commerce. The park requests that those who plan to attend register by emailing “Monarch Festival Registration” and the number of people in your party to gorges@ncparks.gov. The festival will be held rain or shine.

For event details, visit www.ncparks.gov/find-an-activity/events-and-programs.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Inaugural Mountain Monarch Festival coming to Transylvania County