The Michigan 4-H Children's Gardens at Michigan State University are hosting the final open house of the season for the Butterflies in the Garden exhibit this weekend.
Jessica Wright is the education coordinator for the Butterfly House. She says the garden receives 250 new chrysalises a week during the annual spring event. The one-month exhibit costs more $10,000 since the butterflies come from a farm in Florida.
She says the house has served more than 4,000 children on field trips throughout April.
“Just getting kids and the adults that usually accompany them on these field trips to know the importance of not just butterflies, but insects in general. And understanding, I think, leads to conservation," Wright said. "That education leads to knowing more about something, and why it is important to us.”
A recent study from MSU researchers found butterfly populations across the U.S. have declined by 22% over the past two decades. Nick Haddad is an ecologist at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station and co-author of the study. He says much of the data used in the study was gathered by citizen scientists.
“The next step for people who get interested in butterflies after visiting the butterfly house or doing gardening to increase numbers of butterflies is ... providing the best data to understand what's happening to our butterflies.”
Haddad identifies climate change, habitat loss and insecticide use as the main drivers of butterfly population decline.
To help slow the decline of butterflies, he says people can reduce their use of insecticides and plant native species in their gardens.