Great American Cleanup. This spring while diving into the trash that others had left behind, KWLB youth volunteers learned the importance of putting litter in its place and encouraging others to do the same. KWLB sponsors periodic organized cleanups to pick up litter in our neighborhood, as well as volunteers who pick up litter routinely on their daily walks. Let’s all join together and support each other to be part of the solution, not the pollution.  

Habitat Heroes. In May the KWLB Habitat Heroes converged on the Butterfly Garden in Ragle Park for a Pollinator Patrol event.  The kids used loupes to closely examine specimens and the  n took a loupe home to continue their investigations.  As they patrolled the gardens they discovered the critical relationship between native plants and the insects needed for pollination and were invited to take native aquatic milkweed home to plant in their own gardens.  Using an application called Seek by iNaturalist on a mobile phone, they used image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals.  

Shout out to the hardworking KWLB volunteers who make it all happen.  Thank you to Jennifer Francoís for sponsoring our KWLB events, Wild Birds Unlimited who sponsors our bird feed at the Bird Sanctuary for bringing out native pollinator plants for sale, and to Russell Braun, Edward Jones financial advisor, for supplying the loupes for the kids. 

Go Native - Plant of the Month. This month we are highlighting the Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata).  These three feet tall annuals provide eye-catching yellow blooms June through October. They do well in sun or part shade and dry to moist soils. Butterflies and bees love them and they attract seed-eating birds. This lovely plant is a larval host      for Orange Sulphur and Sleepy Orange butterflies.