After efforts to plant milkweed on the Roanoke Canal Trail throughout the spring and summer, attention turned today to the entrance of the Geenex and ET Solar farm at the old airport to seed the ground with a variety of nectar plants for the monarch's return trip to Mexico to renew their lifecycle.
The planting was a cooperative effort of 93 volunteers — Dominion Power employees who used their volunteer days, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the Roanoke Rapids High School Marching Band, said Tina Gregory, one of the partners in the endeavor.
“We chose Geenex because they are providing a green energy source,” Gregory said, “And they're putting in a nature trail.”
Laying down straw.
A $2,500 donation from Dominion helped to purchase the plants, that include some 60 native perennials from across the state as well as some 1,500 milkweed plants, Gregory said.
The effort has included bluebird boxes on the trail and at the Geenex butterfly garden.
The entire butterfly corridor project has been a community effort, those volunteering said today, as it includes not only Dominion and students, but the county tourism office, Friends of the Roanoke Canal Trail, Halifax Community College and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
Preparing the ground.
Carlos Verdaguer, a Dominion supervisor, said, “My wife and I love gardening. I love having the opportunity to work with young kids.”
Randall Spence, cultural resources leader at the Roanoke Canal Museum and Trail, said the butterfly corridor effort is already paying off there. “We've already found monarch caterpillars. We've already seen success.”
Spence has been impressed with the community effort that has gone on at the trail and now Geenex. “I have been amazed by the volunteers who have participated and the people who have come together.”
Allen Purser, one of the leaders of Boy Scout Troop 238, said, “I think it's fantastic that the scouts have this opportunity to contribute to their community. It's really what scouting is all about.”
Danielle Webb, a drum major with the high school band and a senior at the school said, “It's really nice to help out. We're dong it for a good cause. It's nice to see people caring for the environment.”
