Monarch on New York ironweed along Sieberts Creek in Purcell Park. Photo credit Trey Jarrels, Harrisonburg Stream Health Coordinator
Headwaters Master Naturalists celebrated the success of our 2015 Monarchs & More! Chapter Focus Project on Saturday, August 15th. It was a beautiful day for HMN chapter members to join area pollinators in the gardens that we created across Rockingham and Augusta counties.
The Migration Tour was a time of showing and viewing our five chapter pollinator sites. Some members met at the Augusta County Government Center in Verona to take the tour by bus. Other members joined us at individual gardens and for a lunchtime meeting at Natural Chimneys Regional Park. We had a wonderful lunch organized by Ann Murray, with help from Jerry Hopkins and Gretchen Achenbach, and then voted on chapter bylaws updates.
Early in the morning the group viewed the pollinator garden in Purcell Park in Harrisonburg. The garden at Cooks Creek Arboretum in Bridgewater was next on the tour. After lunch, we stopped by the garden at Natural Chimneys in Mt. Solon. Then, the bus took us to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton. The pollinator garden at Project Grows in Verona was our last stop.
Each garden on the tour offered a beautiful and successful pollinator environment based on its individualized setting. We spotted many Monarchs while on the tour. It was a great day in the gardens for both pollinators and humans! Special thank yous go to Sandy Greene for arranging the Monarchs and More Migration Tour and to all those who presented the gardens that they helped create!
by Stephanie Gardner, August 2015
Virginia Master Naturalist Headwaters Chapter 