This is the second time Woodstone has hosted a monarch butterfly release. The monarchs were supplied by Deb Steinberg, who raised some of the butterflies from caterpillars, others were found in the wild.

Steinberg said the annual butterfly release started with Betty and Emergy Haus.

“Betty and Emery have a love for the monarch butterflies,” Steinberg said. “They have done butterfly at their home in the past.”

Betty said her favorite thing about the monarchs was their life cycle.

Woodstone resident Betty Haus releases a monarch butterfly. Haus and her husband Emery are fans of the monarch butterflies and have hosted multiple buttery fly releases from their home. —Photo by Deb Steinberg

“I love to watch the caterpillar turn into the chrysalis and evolve into the monarch,” she said. “I love to watch the process.”

Betty Haus was a first grade teacher for 37 years and she often taught her students about the monarchs. She remembers reading students’ books on butterflies every year.

Since the couple moved to Woodstone, the butterfly release moved with them.

Before the monarchs were released, they were identified if the Monarch was male or female. Then residents placed a small identification sticker on the lower wing of the Monarch and released them for their long journey to Mexico.

The monarch can travel 20 to 50 miles per day gaining altitude by soaring in updrafts of warm air. Successful migrants can navigate more than 1,500 miles to a site in Mexico.

Steinberg said most monarchs joining the migration each fall are four or five generations removed from those that made the journey the previous year, but they find the same groves of trees visited by their ancestors in Mexico.

How monarchs navigate to these forest groves remains an unsolved scientific mystery. In the spring monarchs breed and start the migration north to Texas, lay their eggs and the cycle starts again. It is a two-way migration.

The tractors placed on the monarchs by the Woodstone residents will hopefully be recovered in Mexico. The majority of recovered tags are obtained in Mexico. Each year, a group called Monarch Watch visits the overwintering sites where they purchase tags from the guides and locals. Monarch Watch pays $5 for each tag turned in as an incentive to get the public to help with monarch migration research.

Tagging monarchs has revealed new information on the origins of the monarchs that reach Mexico along with many other insights.

Steinberg said for the last ten-plus years, this migration appears to be declining. Causes of this decline are believed to be from loss of milkweed, drought conditions, insecticide and herbicide use, and overwintering habitat loss.

Organizations and volunteers have worked to restore native plants to aid the monarch population. Monarch caterpillars need milkweed to grow and develop. Plant butterfly/bee nectar plants – monarchs need nectar to provide energy as they breed and for their migratory journey.

The monarch migration has already begun. Steinberg said most of monarchs have already moved south, with a few stranglers remaining.

Within the next few weeks, all remaining monarchs will be gone.