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Rearing Monarch Butterflies Naturally in a Protected Environment

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Update of a Monarch 6×6 BioTent on a naturally growing plot of milkweed stocked by wild OE free adult butterflies. We are conducting research to compare the success of monarchs reared in the tent to that of nature here in Iowa.

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Monarchs in BioTent

Rearing on Autonomous Plots at MRS

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Guest post by Jabe Gonder, MRS Summer Research Intern. 6×6 milkweed plot is prepared for a BioTent This summer’s research is in full swing headed into the second week of July. We are continuing the experimentation of “One and Done”—Rearing Monarch Butterflies on the Wild Side— at our research station. Beginning in early June, the…

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Orlan Love Prairie Dedication

Orlan Love Prairie Dedicated

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Orlan Love in the Orlan Love Prairie, Squaw Creek State Park. On Tuesday, June 24 a 6.6 acre pollinator prairie within Linn County’s Squaw Creek State Park was formally dedicated as the Orlan Love Prairie.  The name honors Orlan Love, a writer and columnist at the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Tributes, news, and remarks by Orlan…

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Chrysalis at the MRS.

OE Testing

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Kallie is hard at work at the MRS testing for OE: Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a single celled parasite that  infects monarchs. We test every monarch in the station. Kallie tests adult monarchs (it’s not possible to test caterpillars for the disease); she’s looking for microscopic spores on the abdomen of the butterfly. Any monarchs found with…

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Doug Tallamy

4th Annual Linn Landowners Forum: Save the Date

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Mark September 29, 2019 on your calendar for the 4th Annual Linn County Landowner Forum. This year’s event will be special! We’re featuring a talk by Doug Tallamy, professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. Doug is a well-known conservationist, and engaging speaker, as well as the author…

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chrysalides

Monarchs in the Making

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Cam, Mike, Kallie, our intern Jabe, and lots of volunteers have been hard at work at the MRS. We have over 800 chrysalides getting ready to emerge! These monarchs will be the mating monarchs that provide eggs for our over 180 active Monarch Zones in and around Linn County, IA. One of many tents within…

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Parks for Pollinators: Linn County BuzzBlitz – Saturday, June 8

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If you’re looking for a fun way to help out the pollinators this weekend, check out the BuzzBlitz happening at Wickiup Hill this weekend: Parks for Pollinators: Linn County’s BuzzBlitz 2019 Calling all citizen scientists! June is pollinator month and we are excited to host a bioblitz to check the health and habitat of Linn…

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Cedar Rapids Gazette: Monarch Moonshot: Officials hope to make Linn County center of butterfly production and habitat

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MARION — The launchpad is prepared for a pair of projects aimed at making Linn County the epicenter of both monarch butterfly production and the habitat they and other pollinators need to sustain themselves… Read more. Published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, August, 2016. Author: Orlan Love.

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Monarch butterfly

Cedar Rapids Gazette: Project: More monarch habitat on the way to Cedar Rapids

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Project headed by Cedar Rapids residents secures 20,000 milkweed plugs September 4, 2015 https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/project-more-monarch-habitat-on-the-way-to-cedar-rapids-20150904

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