MILTON - Milton just became a little more pollinator friendly.
That’s thanks to Sustainable Milton, whose members dug into Roper Drive greenspace last weekend to create the newest stop along the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project.
Established in 2023, the nationwide network serves to rebuild habitats for butterflies and bees, which have been dwindling in the wake of climate change, pesticide use and development.
“Butterflies and moths are what we call specialist insects. They've evolved over a million years to have a very specific plant on which they use to host their young,” said Sustainable Milton’s Mary Brown, who’s now known as one of the Butterflyway Rangers. “If they cannot find that plant, they cannot raise their young. They basically don't make it.”
Monarch butterflies were known to overwinter on 45 acres of fir trees in Mexico, where their epic fall migration from Canada ended. Now, they only occupy five acres, far below the threshold of 15 to avoid population collapse. Their population has dropped by 90 per cent since 2021.
Hundreds of such gardens are doing their part to help pollinator populations bounce back. Among them are those situated at Milton District High School and Shelagh Law Parkette in Halton Hills.
Sustainable Milton’s garden is located in a residential neighbourhood near James Snow Parkway and Main Street E. There, visitors can find pollinator-friendly plants like the New England aster, purple coneflower, grey-headed coneflower and sierra larkspur, among many others.
“This year, I became a ranger because we were doing it anyway and might as well get the sign for free,” Brown said.
With the help of the Town of Milton, Brown and her fellow group volunteers attempted to plant trees where the pollinator garden is now. As the trees did not take, they pivoted to create a butterfly habitat.
These initiatives are in a long line of projects Sustainable Milton has taken on.
Perhaps is the most visible of these is a community garden located at the Italian Cultural Centre of Milton (ICCM) on Tremaine Road. Anyone who helps with the garden can take home anything that’s grown there.
This can include lettuce, garlic, black chokeberries, calendulas, leeks, lots of fruit and many more types of produce across 18 beds.
“We do a lot of garden events to promote biodiversity, to help with food security, we share some of our produce. But really we are trying to educate young people and families around the value of growing and sharing,” said board president Wendy Roberts.
Sustainable Milton has also collaborated with Craig Keilburger Secondary School to build bat houses. Two of them are mounted at the ICCM and another two on the Indian Creek Trail. In the area around the ICCM are, said Roberts, every species of bat native to Ontario.
Those interested in learning more about the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterfly Way Project can find information on their website.
Visit SustainableMilton.ca for more on the organization’s projects and events.