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Leslie Science and Nature Center to host virtual Monarch Migration Festival

Moving online means participants can release their own monarch butterflies at home

FILE - This Aug. 19, 2015, file photo, shows a monarch butterfly in Vista, Calif. The western monarch butterfly population wintering along California's coast remained critically low for the second year in a row, a count by an environmental group released Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, showed. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) (Gregory Bull, Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

ANN ARBOR. Mich. – The Leslie Science and Nature Center will be moving the annual Monarch Migration Festival virtual this year, but that’s no reason to skip the celebration.

This year’s festival will be held on Sunday, Sept. 13 from 1-2 pm. The event celebrates the yearly migration of the monarch butterfly across North America, which has recently been threatened by deforestation and the use of herbicides. Part of the proceeds from each registration will go directly to conservation efforts.

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The event centers around a live broadcast of the butterfly release in the Leslie Science and Nature Center’s pollinator garden, and participants will also have access to educational games, videos, and other at-home activities.

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Registration also comes with a butterfly for participants to release at home, or you can instead choose to sponsor one of the butterflies being released in the Nature Center’s pollinator garden. Participants can get their own monarch butterfly at curbside-pickup on the day of the event.

Registration is $7 for individual admission, or you can opt for the $22 “pollinator pack” which comes with additional info and seeds to start a pollinator garden at home.

For more information and to register for the event, visit Leslie Science and Nature Center’s website here.