The summer of 2018 is being recognized by many different environmental organizations as having been a good season for the monarch butterfly. Although still endangered and suffering after years of population decline, the distinctive orange and black pollinators saw a significant population boost this year, helped along by the summer weather. At her home in Huntingville, Shirley Rublee said she definitely saw a difference. “I’ve been raising butterflies for I don’t know how many years now; a long time,” Rublee said, explaining that she maintains a milkweed patch on her property and found so many monarch eggs and caterpillars this year that she couldn’t take them all in. “I think the most I had raised before was about 150,” she added, noting that this year that number passed 200 over the months of July and August. “There’s a limit to how many I can care for at once.” See full story in the Tuesday, Dec. 11 edition of The Record.
The butterflies’ midwife: Shirley Rublee on raising endangered monarchs
By Gordon Lambie
