Ark City ‘Monarchs & Milkweed’ event planned for Sunday

A monarch butterfly sipping nectar from swamp milkweed flower.

ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Arkansas City Beautification and Tree Advisory Board is partnering with many other area agencies to launch a new educational conservation event this month.

The inaugural “Monarchs & Milkweed” event will be from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday in the V.J. Wilkins Family Center for the Arts at the Burford Theatre, located at 118 S. Summit St. in downtown Ark City.

In addition to a free milkweed plant giveaway, this event will feature several educational sessions about pollinators such as bees and monarch butterflies. Local speakers will talk about milkweed, and provide guidance on planting and growing the giveaway plants.

“These starter plants were grown by Ark City High School students as part of a project and we very much appreciate making them available to the public,” said Public Information Officer Andrew Lawson.

Cowley County residents interested in planting milkweed are encouraged to attend this event to learn more and claim their free plants. Milkweed is an important source of habitat for many pollinators.

This event also checks off many required items for the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge, a program sponsored by the National Wildlife Foundation that the City of Arkansas City entered into last year.

“Monarchs & Milkweed” is jointly sponsored by The Pollinator Project, a collaborative cooperation between the Board, the Cowley County Conservation District, Cowley County Farm Bureau, K-State Research and Extension-Cowley County, and the Arkansas City Area Chamber of Commerce.

Members of the Beautification and Tree Advisory Board are chairwoman Brooke Padgett, vice chair Paisley Howerton, Robin Henderson, Nancy Holman, Peggy Soule, Jessica Taylor, and Jill Wineinger.

For more information about Monarchs & Milkweed or the Pollinator Project, contact Howerton at (620) 442-0230 or [email protected] or Lawson at (620) 441-4415 or [email protected].