Program for Sunday, June 30, 2019

“Our Monarch Butterflies” with Bill Allan

Ecologist Bill Allan initiated a conservation project in 2002 to recover the population of the threatened diamondback terrapin in Eastham’s bay marshes. For the past 17 years, he has spent every day during nesting/hatching season finding & protecting terrapin nests, then releasing the hatchlings. The number of nests has quadrupled to 245  in 2018 and, correspondingly, the number of hatchlings released has increased from about 400 to 2000. Although still classified as threatened, the population of terrapins is much healthier today. Recently, he & his wife Annie observed monarch butterfly caterpillars on some milkweed plants in their backyard which, through their involvement with the Eastham Conservation Foundation, got them interested in helping recover the population of monarch butterflies.