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05/08/2024 08:30 AMFor over 20 years, Craig Oveson, an internationally known lepidopterist (a person who studies butterflies and moths) and Monarch butterfly expert — better known as “Craig the Butterfly Man” — has been on a journey to save the monarch butterfly. Soon, he will be returning to the Branford Green with an expanded version of his Educational Live Butterfly Sanctuary Exhibit beside the Town’s pollinator garden.
Craig and his wife and Mary Szapiaczan are among the leaders of an organization of monarch butterfly conservation groups that is now 300,000 members strong.
“We’ve been involved in monarch conservation pretty regular since ‘03, back before it was cool, you know?” says Craig. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife accepted a petition to list the monarch butterfly in 2014, so it got a lot of notoriety, and that’s when we people who had been in it a long time already, kind of floated to the top.”
Craig has made the rounds of many classrooms to help educate students. One of his goals is to get more science teachers on board with the idea of raising monarchs in the classroom.
“We’re trying to get all the science teachers across the country to raise them in classrooms and to teach people to actually raise them in classrooms,“ says Craig.
In his work to support the species, Craig also travels to teach others, usually with his mobile Monarch sanctuary trailer. The trailer trips include those that have educated students and communities in Texas, where the monarch has been the state insect for over 20 years. For his contributions to more than 15,000 youngsters and counting, Craig has been officially recognized by the Texas state legislature.
Currently, Craig is in the process of building his next-generation sanctuary trailer in his hometown of Branford.
“We will fill it with plants and butterflies and will be taking it on tour in the U.S., Canada, and maybe Mexico during the migration,” says Craig.
America’s part in the monarch migration begins a few weeks into April when butterflies that overwintered in Mexico move into Texas and a few southern states to lay their eggs on milkweed plants, after which the adult monarchs then die. By the last week in May, the migration of new monarchs moves into the Midwest and Northeast for the summer. At the end of August, the migration will start heading to Mexico.
Details on the migration and just about anything you ever need to know about monarch butterflies can be found at Craig’s Facebook (HowToRaiseMonarchButterflies.com), which also points to his multi-layered website, craigthebutterflyman.com.
The website is a conglomeration of free educational information and support to help additional conservation-minded people get involved. It connects groups comprising hundreds of thousands of monarch butterfly citizen scientists, conservationists, and educators all over North America.
A critical element for these conservationists is protecting and propagating monarch butterflies through the stages of metamorphosis. As they develop in nature, monarchs are especially at risk from predators, as Craig and Mary can affirm from their trips to the Texas hill country. Monarch butterflies travel there from Mexican overwintering sites, arriving mid-March through April.
“Many of their offspring will be eaten in the larvae or chrysalis stage by predators, with the worst being imported, invasive red fire ants,” Craig says.
The ants have spread across the south to California, he notes. According to research undertaken by the University of Texas in San Antonio, these red ants are responsible for an 87% reduction in the survival rate of monarchs developing in the south. Other natural predators will consume a large portion of the 13% left by the fire ants. The few which will survive will migrate.
The issue is just one of many reasons why Craig hopes more and more people will want to learn more about the plight of the monarchs and act in any way they may be able to help protect this important species, including learning how to raise them.
Craig’s looking forward to showing people how that can be accomplished as part of the Educational Live Butterfly Sanctuary Exhibit he’s bringing back to Branford. The 12’ x 40’ enclosed temporary space, larger than last year’s, is expected to be ready for visitors to stop by beginning in the month of June.
Craig drew a lot of interested visitors to the sanctuary exhibit he set up last summer.
“It was a couple thousand people who visited it,” says Craig.
Branford’s pollinator garden, installed last year, was the first garden of its type to be installed on the town green, but not the first pollinator garden to be installed by the Town of Branford at places including parks. All of the gardens support a growing pollinator pathway throughout the town.
Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove credits Craig with the idea of developing a pollinator garden on the green. Last spring, they walked the green together to find the best location, landing on an otherwise vacant, grassy slope located between First Baptist Church at 957 Main Street and Blackstone Avenue’s intersection with the green.
Craig also thanks Branford’s Tree Warden and Public Works Supervisor Gary Zielinski and his crew for the work to install and plant the main garden sections. The Branford Green Committee also supported the idea. The 100’ x 100’ free-form pattern garden includes a mix of perennials, annuals sowed by seed, and nursery plants, all of which attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.