Rowe Sanctuary Students Tag Monarchs for Conservation

Students at the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary are tagging monarch butterflies this fall. The program, organized by the Center’s Education Manager Amanda Hefner, lets participants collect data for the Monarch Watch community science project.

Hands-On Learning at Rowe

The Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary offers field trips that move students beyond classroom learning. In elementary and middle school, visitors become Nature Detectives, using hand lenses and monoculars to investigate wetlands and prairie ecosystems. Activities include wading through wetland habitats with dip nets, sweeping prairie grass for insects, and dissecting cow pies to study the diet of Sandhill Cranes. Older students in grades four to six document birds by sight and sound, exploring migration patterns and bird adaptations.

As students progress, the complexity of their experiences grows. Middle-school participants in the Living Environment program examine how plants and animals depend on one another and how human actions affect the physical environment. High-school students in the FFA Range and Natural Resources programs dive deeper into native plant identification, range judging, and topics such as invasive species, habitat management, and soil and water management.

Monarch Tagging Experience

This fall, the Center offers a special monarch tagging experience. During the fall migration, many monarchs travel south toward their overwintering grounds in Mexico. Students capture monarchs, gather information about each butterfly, and carefully apply a small identification tag before releasing them. Each tagged monarch becomes part of a larger scientific effort through Monarch Watch, a community science project. The students’ observations and data contribute directly to ongoing research on monarch migration.

The program’s goal is not only to teach facts about ecosystems or migration; it is to help students understand that these systems are connected and that human choices can affect their health and sustainability. By engaging in hands-on conservation, students experience the reality of migration and the importance of data collection.

Connecting Students to Conservation

Rowe Sanctuary believes that inspiring the next generation of conservationists requires giving young people opportunities to experience nature, ask questions, contribute to science, and care for the places around them. The Center’s field trips illustrate how curiosity can lead to discovery and how getting hands dirty can be the first step toward meaningful conservation.

If you’re interested in a field trip at Rowe Sanctuary, please reach out to Education Manager Amanda Hefner at amanda.hefner@audubon.org.