Vision

Our vision was to revitalize Tallgrass Prairie and Milkweed habitat for monarch populations in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Action

The Tallgrass Prairie is the most endangered ecosystem on Earth, with less than 1% of its original space lost to colonization through agriculture, urban development, and land-use change. Part of this ecosystem include milkweed, to which the Monarch Butterfly is dependent on.

As a class, students have been exploring the impact of colonization on both people and place, and considering ways in which we can become better connected to the environment. Inspired from our project last year of bringing a model garden to a nearby resident, my class developed the goal of supporting our community with bringing tallgrass prairie species to their gardens. The intent was to help make connections with local species, and develop the thinking that small actions can make a large impact — we can do a lot about climate change and environmental harm.

Students learned about the process for how seeds germinate and prairie ecosystems. We then connceted with a local supplier of tallgrass prairie plant seeds, and planted nearly 1500 seedling starters for a variety of Tallgrass Prairie flowers, and with the goal of 300 milkweed plants. We were extremely successful with our germination, and ended up with 500 milkweed plants. These plants will be distributed to students’ homes, nearby neighbours, and in permanent locations around our school, with the anticipated goal of creating enough micro-habitat to support roughly 1200-1700 monarch caterpillars. We were also able to grow roughly 1000 other Tallgrass Prairie plants with other classrooms.

We plan to include a small informational pamphlet to let homeowners know the importance of these plants for pollinators, and hope to expand our ability to grow and distribute Tallgrass Prairie plants into our community of Garden City.

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