Popular American Fork park renamed to help save Monarch Butterfly
Sep 5, 2023, 6:47 PM
A monarch's brilliant coloring tells predators: "Don't eat me. I'm poisonous." The butterflies get their toxins from a plant called milkweed, which is their only food source in the caterpillar stage.(KSL TV)
(KSL TV)
AMERICAN FORK, Utah — Since 1990 the monarch butterfly population has seen a sharp decline, as much as 99% in the western United States.
American Fork Mayor Brad Frost and city council members hope to change the declining population by renaming Mountain Meadow Park to Monarch Park.
The new park was dedicated as a habitat for the threatened monarch.
Frost said, “This will be something I think we will be able to look back on in 50 even 100 years that American Fork City took action to help preserve the monarch butterfly in their plight.”
American Fork City Councilors, the mayor, and volunteer groups dedicated Monarch Butterfly Park Tuesday in American Fork. (KSL TV)
Jordan River Conservation volunteers helped plant milkweed along the Jordan River. Milkweed is the only plant monarch caterpillars eat.
Monarch Park is filled with milkweed and native flowering plants and will become a protective area to help them thrive.
“We are so happy to have a place where the monarch butterfly can come and be nurtured, and have the nutrients they need to continue their flight south which will ultimately be in Mexico,” Frost added.
Frost was inspired to protect the area after a third-grade class recently presented the issue at a city council event. Some of those students tagged the butterflies and set them free for migration.
“I am so happy that there is another weight station for the monarch butterflies little steps like these can make the world a better place for monarch butterflies and for us,” one of those students said.
The Monarch Park is open and people are welcome to go see the Monarch Butterfly population, they are just asked to do so respectfully.
