BETHEL — Presented by the Mahoosuc Land Trust, this free event is all about community, conservation, and family fun! Join Mahoosuc Land Trust on August 13, for the Monarch Festival at Valentine Farm, home of the a sixteen-thousand square-foot Habitat For All Garden! For more information, visit https://www.mahoosuc.org/monarch-festival.

This garden is a part of the Habitat for All (HFA) initiative led by Mahoosuc Land Trust. Focusing on the philosophy that small actions lead to big changes, the Habitat for All program invites everyone to reimagine outdoor spaces as an opportunity to create new habitats for plants, wildlife, birds, bees, butterflies, and humans.

New this year is a Junior Naturalist scavenger hunt for kids. Participants are tasked with solving as many puzzles as they are old.  Successful scavengers will get a Junior Naturalist sticker and a coupon for a free cookie at the Gemini Cafe in Bethel.

This event is free and open to the public. The festival begins on August 13, at 11 a.m., with MLT’s Annual Meeting. Bethel poet and National Humanities Medal recipient Richard Blanco will share original poetry to inspire the occasion. Blanco is the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve as the Presidential Inaugural Poet as well.

At 12 p.m., festival activities begin, including an indigo dying demonstration, gardening and monarch butterfly talks, bird walks, children’s activities, insect exploration, artisan vendors, and more. Three free raffle tickets are given to every festival-goer, which they can use to win raffle prizes donated by local vendors and artisans.

Attendees can also watch monarch tagging demonstrations from 1-3 p.m. Each year, monarchs make their way from Maine to Mexico as part of their great migration. So far, two monarch butterflies that were tagged at Valentine Farm have been found in El Rosario, a monarch preserve in Mexico, traveling a distance of 2,986 miles. Tracking these Monarchs is a critical piece to observing and studying the biodiversity the garden creates for insects and wildlife, and this is your opportunity to be a part of it!

Going on its third year, the Monarch Festival and the Habitat for All Garden continue to grow. This year is especially exciting with the inclusion of an evening event the day before with keynote speaker Doug Tallamy, co-founder of the Homegrown National Park initiative. He will join the program via live webcast at The Gem Theater to discuss ecology, biodiversity, gardening, conservation, and why joining the movement and turning your backyard into a wildlife habitat is so important.

Habitat for All thanks its event sponsors, The Rotary Club of Bethel, River Fund of Maine, Franklin Savings Bank, and supporter, Norway Savings Bank. Without their support, free public access to this event would not be possible, and sustaining Habitat for All’s work of restoring the connection between people, nature, and their backyards is that much stronger because of them.

For more information about the Monarch Festival, email info@mahoosuc.org or visit https://www.mahoosuc.org/monarch-festival to see the agenda for the day.

 

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