Kinder Farm Opens New Pollinator Garden And Monarch Butterfly Exhibit

Past the signature white silos and the busy athletic fields of Kinder Farm Park (KFP) lies a new pollinator sanctuary. This is KFP’s new “hidden gem,” according to Jessica Furr, a park ranger with the Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks. The area was once used as a collection area for broken sports equipment and deflated balls. Now, it is a reclaimed wildlife area featuring a giant sculpture of a monarch butterfly, created by Furr, at the center of the garden.

The pollinator garden contains native flowers, including black-eyed Susans and milkweed, that are crucial to sustaining Maryland’s declining bee and butterfly populations. Furr, who led the creation of the garden, started KFP’s new pollinator education program to teach children and conservation enthusiasts how to grow the right plants for pollinators at home. She also launched the adopt a flower box program, which encourages volunteers to sign up to plant and maintain native flowers in certain areas of the garden.

Other rangers at KFP started the new bluebird box program in the pollinator garden, where children can learn about the life cycle of bluebirds. A ranger involved with the program tracks data on bluebird populations and nesting activity in the pollinator garden. Children can also go online to track bluebirds in birdhouses scattered across the garden.

In the back of the pollinator garden is a new vivarium for monarch butterflies. The small, wooden shed provides rangers with a place to safely raise monarch eggs found around the property. KFP staff chose to focus the shed on monarchs because of their popularity and beauty. Furr calls the monarchs a “keystone species” for their striking orange color and distinct look. She explained that by creating a program around this endangered butterfly, Kinder hopes to increase awareness about all endangered insect populations in Maryland. “This is a way to build a caring connection with the public and get them interested (in conservation),” Furr said.

Another reason Kinder staff chose to focus on monarchs is because of the astounding annual international journey they take. Once the monarchs in the vivarium are fully grown, the rangers release them with small, white stickers attached to their dorsal, or bottom, wings. Each sticker has a number that allows the rangers to track the butterflies’ movement to Mexico, where monarchs spend the colder months. As the butterflies travel, scientists from partnered organizations spot the stickers and record each butterfly’s location on www.monarchwatch.org. Over time, nearly every butterfly raised and released from KFP has a tracked 2,500-mile journey from Kinder Farm Park to Mexico City.

Furr shared that volunteers can sign up this summer to tag the monarchs. Volunteers can then track their butterflies’ locations on Monarch Watch and through Furr’s logs of all the butterflies’ movements.

Sign-ups for all classes and volunteer opportunities are available at www.kinderfarmpark.org.