Press release
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) needs our help with the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative and Buckeye Central students are ready to pitch in! Buckeye Central Middle School’s 7th grade students are collecting Common Milkweed seed pods in cooperation with a state-wide effort to raise awareness of the Monarch butterfly’s dwindling habitat in Ohio and across the nation. Students are collecting seed pods from the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), one of several species of milkweed plants that Monarch larvae use as their only source of food for the two weeks they are in their larval stage.
Citizens of Crawford County are asked to collect seed pods, preferably still intact, in paper bags and drop them off at the high school office entrance at Buckeye Central Schools, Crawford County’s official collection site. The pods need to be brown in color. If they are plucked while still green, the seed won’t be mature and won’t germinate next spring. The Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative will supply ODOT with seeds to be spread along 19,000 miles of right-of-way in an effort to boost Monarch populations by providing the necessary food source. Monarch butterflies are important contributors to pollination across the nation before they migrate south to the Oyamel Mountains of Mexico in October.
Please consider taking a walk to hunt for the Common Milkweed plant to collect mature (brown or tan) seed pods. Any resident is welcome to drop off seeds at the BC front office at 938 South Kibler Street in New Washington before October 30th. For more information, please visit the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative at http://www.ophi.info/.
If you have questions, please contact Science teacher Mrs. Marianne Williamson at mwilliamson@bcbucks.org or 419-492-1035, Ext. 1400.