BETHEL — Mahoosuc Land Trust’s 5th annual Monarch Festival is Sunday, Aug. 24. Admission is free, and the event runs from noon to 4 p.m., immediately following the Mahoosuc Land Trust annual meeting at 11 a.m.

Monarchs are among the best known of the local pollinators to frequent Mahoosuc Land Trust’s unique Habitat For All garden and make a logical poster species for this educational event. They are also critically endangered, primarily due to habitat loss. Watching monarch caterpillars munch milkweed leaves, seeing chrysalides hatch into new butterflies, and tagging butterflies before their return to Mexico are great ways to inspire pollinator-friendly gardens at home. MLT’s mostly volunteer-created pollinator garden continues to attract thousands of visitors annually.

The festival is a fun, educational, and family-focused event that helps inspire visitors to bring nature into their own lives. Activities include garden tours, bird walks, educational games, story time, lawn games, monarch tagging, and much more. Turtle Rescue League, Xerxes Society, Western Maine Audubon, the Bug Guy, and many others will have booths, and a talented assortment of artisans will have their wares available for purchase.

Thanks to the efforts of Mahoosuc Land Trust volunteers, the ever-generous Bethel Rotary Club, and local sponsors, a community barbecue is available free of charge as supplies last. Anyone wishing to bring a salad or dessert is welcome to contact [email protected].

Forester Ethan Tapper will kick off the festivities with a talk at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Gould Academy’s Trustees Auditorium. The author of “How to Love a Forest: The bittersweet work of tending a changing world” (Broadleaf Books, 2024), he will discuss his personal journey to replenish his over-harvested, worn-out Vermont homestead and make a passionate case for a new ethic about how we should value our forests. Tapper will also give the keynote at the annual meeting on Sunday.

“I have learned that forests are like rivers,” writes Tapper. “Succession is not a linear, one-way journey; it is an endless process, a cycle that forests pass through again and again. Each stage of succession is a destination, each providing habitat for entire communities, each supporting vital natural processes, each a universe of unique and irreplaceable values. None is a means to an end.”

This year’s festival sponsors are the Gamble family, Bethel Rotary Club, Franklin Savings Bank, The River Fund Maine, and Norway Savings Bank.

Mahoosuc Land Trust works with communities to conserve critical lands that protect biodiversity on a regional level, mitigate climate change, and provide educational, recreational, scenic, economic, and ecological benefits. For more information, visit mahoosuc.org. Preregistration is encouraged. Avoid the line by registering online at mahoosuc.org/events-calendar.