Milltown teen's Girl Scout project makes butterflies more accessible

Abigail VanderLek looked up from the concrete tile she was gently maneuvering into place to see a bright, orange Monarch butterfly flit past.

Working on the hot ground of the Ashland Nature Center’s butterfly house, a Monarch sighting is not out of the ordinary, but that doesn’t make it any less inspiring, said VanderLek, 16, of Limestone Gardens.

A lover of butterflies since her days as a young Girl Scout camper at Ashland, VanderLek chose to renovate Ashland’s mini-habitat for butterflies as her Gold Award project. The Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive, requires the completion of a project that meets a need in the community.

The butterfly house, a screened-in building behind the nature center, provides food and sanctuary for several species of butterflies that inhabit the Piedmont, explained Sheila Vincent, group program coordinator.

“When I was little, I thought the butterfly house was the coolest thing in the world,” said VanderLeck. “Being able to help other little kids enjoy this place will be rewarding.”

After a year of planning and prep work, she and a team of Girl Scouts and relatives replaced the pebbles that covered the floor of the butterfly house with concrete tiles. They hauled in 8,000 pounds of sand and concrete, she said, and actually laid the tiles in the shape of a butterfly.

They plan to replace the doors to the butterfly house, too, she said, which will help keep the butterflies inside the building.

With a solid floor, the butterfly house will be wheel chair accessible, VanderLeck said. While it may not be easy to move a wheel chair along the path to the butterfly house, there is enough pavement and hard-packed earth to make it possible, she said.

“No matter who you are, you can come into the butterfly house and see nature at its best,” she said.

She plans to finish work by the end of the summer. The house has remained open throughout the renovation and one thing VanderLek has noticed is how well-used the building is, she said.

At least two dozen people come through each day during the weekends, she said, which makes her accessibility project all the more important.

The butterflies, too, benefit from the house. Many species eat nectar and there are garden beds lining the perimeter of the butterfly house that provide the nutrients they need, Vincent said. The Piedmont is home to many species of butterflies because of its mild climate.

“Because the kind of habitat that most butterflies need to survive is increasingly disappearing, there is a danger of losing butterflies,” she said.

Monarch butterflies, for example, feed on milkweed, which used to be plentiful growing along the sides of roads or in farmers’ fields, she said. But development has cut its way through much of the milkweed, making it harder for Monarchs to find food.

And if there are fewer butterflies, the whole ecosystem will be negatively affected, VanderLek said, since butterflies play a vital role in the environment as pollinators.

“No one really thinks that butterflies have a huge impact on the environment, but they do,” she said.

VanderLek is hoping that, once her project is complete, more people will be able to see butterflies up close, enjoy their beauty and respect the role they play in the world.