The Monarch Joint Venture (MJV) continues to grow, welcoming Great Parks of Hamilton County (GPHC) as a new partner organization. GPHC is located in Hamilton County, Ohio and is currently utilizing their existing monarch habitat restoration sites to raise awareness about monarchs and pollinators. The MJV is excited to work with GPHC to continue and expand on their important work for monarchs in Ohio.
“Great Parks of Hamilton County is excited about partnering with Monarch Joint Venture to continue our work in the region to restore habitat for monarch butterflies. Greater Cincinnatians can take pride that their parks have such an important role in this international conservation initiative.” – Jack Sutton, Executive Director
GPHC is living out its mission to preserve and protect natural resources with about 2,000 acres of prairie and meadow habitat to support pollinators. In addition to their prairie habitat, GPHC manages a native plant nursery with seed harvested from within 100 miles, offering an important source of local genotypes of native plants such as milkweed for monarch habitat restoration. This year, at least 1,300 milkweed plants will be propagated, including four different species: Swamp milkweed, Sullivant’s milkweed, Common milkweed and Whorled milkweed. GPHC also provides habitat for other wildlife than pollinators; they manage 80% of their 17,000 acres of land as natural areas including forest, wetland, prairie and meadow.
GPHC’s conservation efforts extend to nature-based educational and recreational programing for the general public. Specific audiences they serve include school and scout groups, retirement communities, churches and families. In 2015 alone they offered more than 2500 programs to over 82,000 guests. They provide programs like “Monarchs on the Move” which explore the life cycle, migration, and host plants of monarchs as well as how to attract and track them.
“Ohio is an important area for monarch conservation, with its location in the eastern monarch flyway,” says MJV Program Coordinator Wendy Caldwell. “We look forward to working with Great Parks of Hamilton County to promote monarch conservation and outreach in this important state.”
Moving forward, the Monarch Joint Venture and GPHC will work to restore monarch habitat in Ohio through increased education and outreach. Welcome, Great Parks of Hamilton County!
To learn more about GPHC, visit their website: www.greatparks.org
The Monarch Joint Venture is a national partnership of federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs working together to conserve the monarch butterfly migration. The content in this article does not necessarily reflect the positions of all Monarch Joint Venture partners. Header photo by Tim Osborne of GPHC.