Cambridge Water Department to host Annual Monarch Butterfly Release Celebration Sunday, August 28

Cambridge Water Department is hosting the eighth annual raising and releasing of monarch butterflies on Sunday, August 28, from 2-3:30 p.m., at Fresh Pond Reservation, 250 Fresh Pond Parkway.

Guests can greet the butterflies, visit information tables, and work on Junior Ranger activity booklets. Join storyteller Yumi Izuyama at 2:15 p.m. to learn more about the Monarch butterfly’s annual migration. Guests can then walk from CWD’s back lawn to the adjacent meadow at Kinglsey Bowl for the Monarch Butterfly release from 2:45-3 p.m.

The beautiful and ecologically significant monarch butterfly has been in decline worldwide in recent years and its annual migration down the eastern seaboard is believed to be under threat. Within the last month, the monarch butterfly was officially added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species.

This raise-and-release project in Cambridge is a combination of volunteer stewardship, invasive plant management, native re-vegetation, and public education all aimed at encouraging a monarch population at Fresh Pond. Good habitat conditions for monarchs are often conditions that are also essential for healthy watersheds.

To learn more about Fresh Pond or this project, please contact Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator Tim Puopolo at 617-349-6489 or tpuopolo@cambridgeMA.gov, or visit the webpage at www.cambridgema.gov/monarchwatch.