Richmond Hill residents team up with city on first milkweed pollinator garden

City taking steps to help protect habitats of monarchs

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 16, 2020
Sheila Wang

Linda Graham puts her green thumbs up for a new community garden in the back of her house in Richmond Hill.

Since late August, Graham and eight of her neighbours on Carrington Drive have been busy putting their hands in the dirt to help establish a milkweed pollinator garden on a vacant lot behind their properties.

The city-owned land, which had been overgrown for years, has become the first milkweed pollinator garden that Richmond Hill has launched to help protect monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

The councillors adopted a motion in July to establish the community garden through a partnership between city and area residents.

“Council is fully supportive of it,” said Regional Coun. Joe DiPaola, who introduced the motion after Graham approached council with the idea.

DiPaola said the half-acre garden was a “hybrid of two things,” which would not only help remove the invasive species, such as garlic mustard that have long plagued the natural area, but increase the habitat of monarch butterflies, whose population has been dwindling.

“It’s a win-win,” Graham said. “We think it is a great idea because we’re all into the environment and want to help. We just kind of want to keep it natural but pretty all at the same time.”

The 37-year resident has planted milkweed plants and several other kinds of wildflowers in a plot of land right behind her house in the hopes they will grow and spread all the way to the edge of the lot.

Graham’s plot is among nine small gardens that have come into being over the past month in the open field.

She and her neighbours have signed a five-year partnership agreement to work on the pilot project with the city, the resident said.

“The more environment like this we provide, the better chances there will be for the survival of monarch butterflies. This benefits everyone,” said Ward 4 Coun. David West, who visited the site on Sept. 9 alongside DiPaola and several residents.

The pollinator garden is the latest effort that the city has taken in order to help protect the habitats of monarchs following the proclamation of Flight of the Monarch Day.

Richmond Hill has been one of the popular places in Ontario where the orange and black butterflies spend the summer before embarking on their epic trek south for the winter.

However, many residents say they’ve spotted fewer monarchs this summer.

Statistics show monarch butterfly population has been on a decline for decades.

Latest data shows a 53 per cent decrease in the forest area occupied by monarch butterflies in their overwintering sites in Mexico during 2019-20 compared to the year before.

Feeding on nectar, monarch butterflies pollinate many types of wildflowers and are also an important food source for birds, small animals, and other insects.

Providing enough milkweed for monarchs is considered essential in maintaining a balanced food web within the ecosystems that are critical in sustaining us.

“I'd love to see more butterflies next year,” said Paul Nudyk, one of the residents who signed the agreement. “I'm planning to spread some seeds in the spring.”

Glad to see the milkweed plants in his plot had grown fast over the past few days, Nudyk said he also expected the plants would spread further to help get rid of the weeds.

DiPaola said the new garden -- not open to the public -- would hopefully be the first of many to come in the future as part of the city's community garden program.