Students walk the meadows to conserve butterflies

A southern Ontario environmental group hopes to save the butterflies — and it's getting started with a federal contribution worth $99,000.

"Our pollinators are in a lot of trouble," said Wendy Lee, the executive director of Don Valley West's Environmental Earth Angels. "We've lost maybe 80 per cent of our meadow habitat in Southern Ontario."

The Earth Angels and its members have lived, worked, and campaigned out of the Don Valley area for more than 20 years. The organization focuses its efforts on tree planting and education, which includes a biodiversity field trip for students at schools in the Don Valley.

In addition, its 100,000 Metres of Meadow program aims to develop meadow land over the next 10 years. According to Lee, anywhere from 70 to 80 per cent of Toronto's meadow lands have been destroyed. 

Naturalist and Carleton University instructor Michael Runtz says meadow lands can include a wide variety of diverse terrain, all of which is needed by insects and animals. Meadows also provide resting places for not only bees, but Canada’s favourite butterfly — the monarch. 

But over the past decade much of this environment has been lost or damaged by Toronto’s steadily widening roads and sprouting buildings.

Environment Canada's EcoAction Community Funding Program has committed $4 million to initiatives like the one in the Don Valley. The government supported a hundred such projects in 2013 according to news releases from the department. The initiative targets projects which rehabilitate, enhance, or protect the environment.

Money from the $99,000 contribution serves a dual purpose — in addition to saving the meadow lands, it spreads education.

Although the EEA handles gathering all the materials, the bulk of the work will be done in 65 schoolyards across the Don Valley. Elementary, middle and high schools are all getting involved, and according to Lee, the waiting list to get into the program has been a long one. Each school will build its own piece of meadow land for a total of 4,000 metres across all of the schools.

"Taking care of the environment is not just about preservation," said Runtz. "It's also about restoration."

For a number of children, the opportunity to get their hands dirty and see environmental growth in action is rare. Lee believes that planting trees is not just about saving the environment — it is also about bringing the community together.

EEA is not just involved with schools in Toronto. Ottawa's St. Steven's Elementary School has its own butterfly garden, courtesy of Lee’s efforts. Although the supervisors are now gone, the kids still take care of the gardens by weeding and watering them regularly.

"The gardens sit just outside our kindergarten classroom," said Principal Roberto Santos. "The kids, obviously, love being able to see it, and the butterflies too."

So far the EEA have walked through 40,000 metres of meadowland. In the next decade they hope to walk through 60,000 metres more.

Jack Lawson is a 4th-year journalism student at Carleton University in Ottawa. This story is part of a project by the Carleton School of Journalism on federal spending announcements in 2013.