<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=29ocJv_0vib8bA300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=29ocJv_0vib8bA300" width="940" height="678" ></figure>When Ella Froah, a Rye High School senior, learned in a conservation class at Columbia University that the monarch butterfly population was endangered, she had to take action.“I knew right away that was my animal,” she said. “In my community of Rye, I knew I didn’t just want to raise awareness, I wanted to do something to come together.”Froah, who is serving a one-year term as a junior commissioner on the city’s Conservation Commission/Advisory Council, said she also knew that Rye is a community where people pitch in.Monarch butterflies needed more native plants, particularly milkweed, Froah learned, and milkweed is where the butterflies lay their eggs. The caterpillars absorb the milkweed toxins — toxic, but not to monarchs — which in turn help the monarch avoid predators.With the help of Tracy Stora, chair of the advisory council, Froah was put in touch with Jaxson Mack, conservation director at the Rye Nature Center, and together they envisioned a pollinator garden. Forah said Mack told her, “You can do whatever you want as long as you know what you’re doing.”With that spirit and the assistance of Mack and The Little Garden Club of Rye, Froah also tapped into the Environmental Conservation Club and the Garnet Garden Club at Rye High School.“Ella is a motivator of other students,” Stora said. “She is the third junior commissioner at the CC/AC, and while she cannot vote, she is a role model for other students.”Froah gathered volunteers to plant the pollinator garden and began fundraising to buy 320 plants of 20 different species, all native. They chose a protected area behind a fence at the deer walk at the Rye Nature Center. In the first area, under the guidance of Mack and with many volunteers, they removed invasive ground cover and planted. In the second area, where there were already native plants like Allegheny Blackberry, the volunteers mixed in Milkweed and other native plants. The garden, visible from the fence, is approximately 17 feet by 44 feet.“We hope to see monarchs next year,” Mack said, noting that “native plants encourage all pollinators.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0SYySp_0vib8bA300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0SYySp_0vib8bA300" width="472" height="374" ><figcaption>Ella Froah first learned that the monarch butterfly was an endangered species during a class at Columbia University.</figcaption></figure>To plant the pollinator garden, Froah gathered more than 20 volunteers — both adults and fellow Rye High School students. Stora praised Froah for her ability to motivate people and for her ability to plan and plant the garden and make plans to maintain it, even after she goes off to college next year.When Froah looks ahead to college, she said, “I have thought ‘what I care about’ rather than just push for college. You can do papers, but to be with the endangered animal…”Bees are already buzzing around the native plants, giving Froah hope that in a few years she will see the monarch butterflies thriving. Her work continues this fall.Miriam Lambert, who works with the Little Garden Club of Rye, said that Froah interned with her over the summer at the Knapp House Kay Donahue Kitchen Garden.“Ella was really great to work with,” she said. “It’s such an inspiration to see young people who are so passionate and interested in the environment, and especially pollinators and conservation.”Lambert has invited Ella to speak this fall at Milton School, where Lambert serves as PTO sustainable garden chair, to inspire more work with pollinator gardens.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3zZw3s_0vib8bA300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3zZw3s_0vib8bA300" width="940" height="788" ><figcaption>Froah gathered volunteers to plant a pollinator garden. They chose a protected area at the Rye Nature Center. Photo courtesy Canva</figcaption></figure>“I’m looking forward to working with her at our school to inspire the next generation and teach them about the importance of our native pollinators and plants,” Lambert said.As she stood in front of the pollinator garden at Rye Nature Center, Froah talked about the annual migration of monarchs from Canada and the United States to Mexico and California.She is pleased with her accomplishment, but most of all, she said, “I’ve participated.”</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Rye High School Senior on a Mission to Save the Monarch Butterflies

When Ella Froah, a Rye High School senior, learned in a conservation class at Columbia University that the monarch butterfly population was endangered, she had to take action. “I knew right away that was my animal,” she said. “In my community of Rye, I knew I didn’t just want to raise awareness, I wanted to do something to come together.”