Montclair's 'Butterfly Queen' hosting local exhibit for iconic book's 50th anniversary

Long-time Montclair resident Trina Paulus, 91, wrote her iconic book about Monarch butterflies, "Hope for the Flowers" in 1972. It has sold three million copies and been translated into 17 languages.

The picture has been a lot less rosy for the Monarchs, whose numbers have plummeted 97% in the 50 years since the book came out. Still, Paulus continues to make a difference in her own backyard, appropriately for the book’s subtitle: “A fable, for adults and children, partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope."

Along with other local environmentalists she’s inspired, Paulus rescues Monarch eggs from her backyard milkweed and continues to host an annual butterfly release celebration in Crane Park that she’s been doing for decades.

Beginning Saturday, there will be a weeklong exhibition in Montclair of 30 canvas prints of the book, which Paulus wrote and illustrated, to honor its 50th anniversary. The free exhibit, including Saturday storytimes, is at the Loop on Maple Street.

Montclair has become a bit of a Monarch refuge. In July, it was named a "Monarch City" by Monarch USA because of its many backyard waystations with native plants and milkweed, both of which are essential to sustain the fragile creatures on their 3,000-mile migration from Mexico to Canada and back.

In 2020, the town was named New Jersey's host town for the the Northeast Pollinator Pathway Project, in recognition of its pesticide-free corridors of native plants. The Montclair-based Northeast Earth Coalition has also created wildlife habitats and pollinator gardens at many of Montclair’s public schools.

Earlier this year, Montclair's town council passed the Jose German-Gomez Native Species Act, named after the founder of the Northeast Earth Coalition, which mandates that 70% of vegetation planted on town property be native to the region, since native plants and trees have evolved to be uniquely adapted to provide crucial food and habitat for pollinators.

At the 2020 butterfly release, Paulus showed no signs of slowing down. She sported a butterfly tiara and a T-shirt with a line from the book: "Without butterflies, the world would soon have few flowers."

“It’s a very beautiful, very friendly event,” she said. “The butterflies always do that for people. They're just so happy, so full of hope.”

Jane Califf and her husband, Ted Glick said they got hooked on rescuing monarchs after attending a backyard party years ago where Paulus handed out chrysalises to guests.

The Bloomfield couple then started growing their own milkweed, along with pollinator plants that provide nectar for the butterflies.

The first year, when Califf couldn't find any evidence of monarchs, Paulus came over and showed her the tiny eggs on the underside of a milkweed leaf.

"She's a real pioneer," said Glick, who is the president of the New Jersey and Rockland chapter of the climate advocacy group 350.

Another protégé is Russell Kahn, who was "blown away" to meet Paulus when he moved to Montclair and discovered that she authored the book he'd read as a child and that "gave his life direction." In 2013, he started News-O-Matic, an online newspaper for kids that has a half-million readers and is part of school curricula across the country.

Born in Ohio, Paulus went to Egypt and Paris as a young woman with The Grail, an international women's movement connected with the Catholic Church. She said she'd always been attracted to the monarch as a symbol of transformation and hope, but became enthralled with the creatures themselves, and their link to a healthy environment, after moving to Montclair.

Paulus has also been "very involved in environmental and anti-war activities and has inspired many people to take action," said Glick. In 2000, she was instrumental in getting town leaders in Montclair and Bloomfield to adopt policies that encouraged recycling rather than incinerating trash.

Her 25 years with the New Jersey environmental movement are in document archives at the North Jersey Heritage Center at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Hackensack.

The free exhibit will tell the story, in 30 big canvas pictures, of publishing the book in a time before computers. There will be a children’s storytime Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m.

“Hope” will be open Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 5 and 6, from 12 to 4 p.m., with storytimes at 1 and 3, and Monday through Thursday, Nov. 7-11, from 10 am to 2 pm. At The Loop, 80 Maple Ave., Montclair.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Montclair celebrates 'Hope for the Flowers' on book's 50th anniversary