Fox Run's Butterfly Garden is Spectacular This Time of Year

The following was researched and written by Fox Run resident Arnetta Whitehouse:

The Fox Run retirement community’s butterfly garden in Novi, MI, is spectacular this year. People who visit this small oasis on Fox Run’s 108-acre campus are often entertained by the dance of a couple Monarch butterflies feeding on the nectar as they stop over on their journey south.

Monarch butterflies prefer temperate climates so, like birds, they migrate every season. Those that live in the east go to volcanic mountains in Central Mexico, and those that live in the west go to parts of California to overwinter.

Most birds that fly south for the winter return, but butterflies don’t. The adults continue to mate and reproduce then die. It is their off-spring (and their offspring’s offspring) that somehow know they must return north or, conversely, fly south, and how to do so.

Orley Taylor, the founder and director of Monarch Watch, says the monarch population has been declining for the last 10 years with significant drops in the population in each of the last three years. According to Taylor, “There’s a great deal of concern that monarch migration is on the verge of collapse.”

Ongoing loss of milkweed stands – the only place Monarchs lay their eggs – to agriculture, non-favorable climates for reproduction on migratory routes, and continuing loss of overwintering habitat to developers are the major causes for the Monarch’s significant decline.

West Michigan Butterfly Association President, Steve Mueller, says, “People who want to help should plant milkweed at home to compensate for plants lost to agriculture and development.” Mueller further told the Detroit Free Press, “Our yards are going to become increasingly more important as our population continues to grow, and we monopolize more of the natural area.”