4-H project underway

The 4-H Monarch Movement project is the youth component of the effort by the University of Georgia Fayette County Extension Office and Master Gardener Extension Volunteers to create a Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Trail in Fayette County.

Begun last fall, the 4-H project will provide education for the youth involved through monthly meetings and hands-on activities. It will also help promote awareness about the drastic decline in the monarch butterfly population due to the loss of milkweed, the only plant that can nourish the growing caterpillars after the monarch lays its eggs.

In November, the 4-H participants planted seeds in the greenhouse located in the old Fayette County High School and this spring they will transfer the seedlings to a special 4-H garden at the Veterans Memorial in Patriot Park. Each year new 4-H members will add native nectar-producing plants to this garden to attract the monarch and other pollinators.

The mission of Georgia 4-H is to assist youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills, and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society.

For more information about the Fayette County 4-H Monarch Movement or other 4-H activities, contact the Fayette County University of Georgia Cooperative Extension office at 770-305-5412 or at ugaextension.org/fayette/4h.

In the above photo, front row, from left: Gabrielle Dockery, Lily Scalf, Marin Sonderman, Abigail Godman, Mateo Roca.

Middle row: Lilly Bentley, Conner Adams, Isabella Ackerman, Ademola Adewusi, April McDaniel.

Back row: Amy Bentley, Don Adkins, Jeff Mellin.

Not pictured: Allison Spinney, David Niedermeyer, Jeffrey Chambers, Rachel Tinsley.