Pollinator Garden Will Give Locals Chance To Raise & Tag Monarch Butterflies

The public has been invited to Waste Management’s Fairless Landfill pollinator garden for a monarch butterfly tagging event.

The event will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the pollinator garden and meadow along Pennsbury Memorial Road and Pennsbury Lane in Falls Township. COVID-19 safety protocols will be in place.

The event will include a pollinator presentation and a chance for the public to collect monarch caterpillars from the garden.

Those who collect a caterpillar will receive a kit that is made up of a jar, a supply of milkweed, and tags and tagging instructions so attendees can take their caterpillar home, watch it develop into a butterfly and then tag and release the butterfly, and report its information to a tracking database. For those who don’t wish to go into the garden, kits with caterpillars already available will be prepared.

In late summer and early fall, monarch butterflies make a migration thousands of miles and as far south as Mexico as the weather gets cooler up north.

The Waste Management pollinator garden and meadow was developed on a 1.5-acre grass field. It was started in 2014 in partnership with the community.

Jude Archibald, a Langhorne resident and founder of project at the landfill property, said there are 86 nectar-rich native plants growing in the habitat that can sustain 66 different species of butterflies and other pollinators, Archibald said.

Waste Management employees, their families, and partners from the community have coordinated with Monarch Watch to collect caterpillars from the garden that developed into 481 butterflies that were tagged and released. 

“The goal of the project is to actively engage employees and the community in learning opportunities that promote pollinator protection, monarch conservation and sustainability,” Archibald said. “Partners joining them on their pollinator journey include Pennsbury Manor, the Falls Township Senior Center, The Pen Ryn School, Pennsbury School District, Snipes Farm and Education Center, Bucks County Audubon, and Churchville Nature Center.”

In 2019, the project had involvement from 1,053 people. Despite COVID-19 and with restrictions in place, the project continues in 2020.

Archibald said the garden along with the Intergenerational Pollinator Partnership Project have provided 30 inquiry-based learning opportunities that reached close to 1,000 people per year between 2017 and 2019.

“The many hours spent by our Garden Committee learning at the Waste Management pollinator garden enabled them to plan and develop the Center’s pollinator garden that serves as an outdoor space for our 850 members,” said Falls Township Senior Center Manager Cecelia Murphy.

Area students are able to use garden as an environmental classroom.

“The Intergenerational Pollinator Partnership Project has been an important extension of our school garden program and gives us opportunities to share learning about pollinators, biodiversity and sustainability,” said Pennsbury School District spokesperson Ann Langtry.

The garden has earned the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) Gold Certification and the Fairless habitat project retains certifications by the National Wildlife Federation, Monarch Watch, North American Butterfly Association, and as a Penn State Pollinator Garden, according to the company that operates the massive landfill.

“The Intergenerational Pollinator Partnership Project is recognized as meeting the strict requirements of WHC Conservation Certification,” said WHC President Margaret O’Gorman. “Companies achieving WHC Conservation Certification, like Waste Management, are environmental leaders, voluntarily managing their lands to support sustainable ecosystems and the communities that surround them.”

“We are thrilled to receive this honor and thank our employees and partners for continuing to advance pollinator protection in Lower Bucks County by maintaining and monitoring this pollinator habitat in our community,” Fairless Landfill Manager Bob Jones said. “In 2001, our site received one of the company’s first Wildlife Habitat Council certifications and we have maintained the longest continuous certification in the company. Attaining this gold certification affirms and recognizes our high level of commitment to conservation, stewardship and environmental protection.”