CNPS Receives Grant to Install Monarch Waystations

by Carrie Strohl

The Napa Valley Chapter of CNPS was recently awarded $5,270.00 from two Legacy Funds of Napa Valley Community Foundation (the Robert & Ellen Streich Family Endowment and the Marion Mendelsohn Fund). This grant is for the Monarch Conservation and Education Project to combat the unprecedented reductions in western monarch populations. Our project proposes to establish three (3) Monarch Waystations along a four-mile corridor from Westwood Hills Park Pollinator Garden to Becky’s Butterfly Garden at Skyline Park. Sites may include school gardens, churches, and community locations visible to the public.
Leadership from several community-based environmental nonprofits and educational organizations inform our approach. For example, the Napa County Resource Conservation District has delivered classroom-based presentations about monarch butterflies in Napa County. The Western Monarch Society distributes milkweed in Napa County. The School Garden Doctor has established pollinator gardens in schools.
CNPS will partner with The School Garden Doctor, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ‘nurturing a collective approach to creating and sustaining inclusive, outdoor education programs.’ The founder of The School Garden Doctor, Carrie Strohl, is the Napa Valley Chapter Council Representative to the State CNPS Chapter Council and is a member of the Napa Valley CNPS Board. Her organization recently registered the first Monarch Waystation in a school garden in Napa County; It was Waystation #49,500 to be registered with the national conservation organization Monarch Watch.