2022 Summer
Summer Classes are free of charge.
Archived
Monarch Butterflies, Milkweed & Maine
Instructor: Cyrene Slegona
Tuesdays • 7/12-8/2 • 9:30-11:30 AM
Class size 6-12 students
1 seats remaining
Location: Jewett 185
The first two classes are held at Jewett Hall, room 185. The last two field trips are at the Viles Arboretum.
This four-session course will provide information about Maine’s milkweeds, monarch butterfly ecology, threats, and best practices everyone can engage in to help protect this iconic Maine summer resident and other pollinators and migrators. We will rear larvae, release monarch butterflies and learn how to tag butterflies for international research. Through journal writing and sketching, together we will record the metamorphosis from egg to adult butterfly. The course will start with two classroom sessions at University of Maine at Augusta followed by two field sessions at the Viles Arboretum in Augusta.
The field sessions will require a 10-minute walk over a mowed trail and into tall grass. The course will include journaling and drawing of our observations. All levels of journaling and drawing are encouraged and welcomed.
Viles Arboretum website
Cyrene Slegona has been engaged with monarchs since she was a young girl in Lincolnville. As a classroom teacher she integrated work with them in grades 1 through 7. Since retirement she continues to work with citizen science projects as a Maine Master Naturalist and Penobscot Bay Steward as well as rearing, tagging and releasing monarchs each summer. She gives presentations and workshops concerning monarchs as an indicator species for the environment and the significance of milkweed as an essential plant for many pollinators and insects. She is a graduate of the University of Maine with a Master’s degree in Education.
_______________________________
COVID REQUIREMENTS: Masks are required in classrooms, unless waived by the instructor. All those attending classes must be fully vaccinated and boosted. We recommend carrying a mask at all times while on the campus to use as needed.
_______________________________