Sheri Knauer with Monarch butterfly.
Sheri has been a member of Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy since 2019. She regularly volunteers for JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary work days and shared her photography skills with us by taking photographs at our Annual Meeting in June 2024.
Sheri’s favorite thing in nature is Monarch butterflies. Due to their declining numbers, for the past eight years she has been collecting the Monarch eggs and caterpillars that she finds in her milkweed patch, raising them in a safe place away from predators and then releasing them when they emerge as butterflies. When possible Sheri shares the experience of releasing them with the kids in the neighborhood. She also has a friend who helps her care for them who brings them to her daughter’s daycare “so the kids there can learn about Monarchs and get to participate in the excitement of releasing them.”
Sheri believes:
Everyone can do something to help the Monarchs. It’s as easy as planting milkweed to provide a place for the Monarchs to lay their eggs and also planting flowers to provide nectar for the butterflies. I tell people that they don’t have to do what I do, just plant the appropriate plants for them.
Sheri made a video called Monarch Butterfly: From egg to release and shared it with us so everyone can see the life cycle of Monarch Butterflies.
Many thanks to Sheri and to all our volunteers and community members who plant milkweed and other native plants in their landscape. Your efforts help ensure our pollinating butterflies and insects have a safe, chemical-free place in which to thrive.