FIRST MONARCH BUTTERFLY FESTIVAL AT EL CAJON LIBRARY MAY 13

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

Story and photo by Miriam Raftery

April 21, 2017 (El Cajon) -- The El Cajon Library, located at 201 E. Douglas Avenue in El Cajon, will host its first Monarch Butterfly Festival, in partnership with San Diego Master Gardeners and the Water Conservation Garden organization, on Saturday, May 13, 2017, from 1 – 4 pm.   Beautiful orange and black monarch butterflies are both year-round San Diego residents and winter migration visitors.  Their numbers have greatly declined over the years and festival visitors can learn about them and how to help increase their numbers by planting a monarch butterfly garden.  Having a butterfly garden is a popular and fun family activity.  Even if you don’t have room for a garden, you can plant milkweed in pots.

The event will feature crafts for kids; free native milkweed seed packets; and informational tables including the Water Conservation Garden and Resource Conservation District.  There will also be a presentation on how to create a butterfly garden, a Girl Scout troop that received their Bronze award by raising monarchs and milkweed, an exhibit with live monarch caterpillars, and a program by Ms. Smarty Plants. 

“This event is designed for adults, kids and families,” according to branch manager Hildie Kraus.  “Butterflies are important pollinators, and lovely additions to the fauna of San Diego County.  All residents can contribute to creating a sustaining environment for them. We hope people will join us for the festival celebrating this critical and fragile creature.”


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.