The Mini Monarch Nursery Maddie:

A small milkweed habitat that can be attached around a tree or pole in urban areas, to provide monarch caterpillars a place to form chrysalises and turn into butterflies before being released, while also providing a learning experience for an urban community.

The Mini Monarch Nursery is a small milkweed habitat that can be attached around a tree or pole in urban areas, to provide monarch caterpillars a place to form chrysalises and turn into butterflies before being released.The habitat consists of  a cylindrical attachment cut vertically in half so that it can be attached around a tree or pole using undergirding supports, internal columns, and straps. Inside, milkweed plants are growing in soil, and outside the cylinders are covered with mesh, to both protect the caterpillars and chrysalis and let outsiders observe what is happening inside. A latch can be opened to let developed butterflies out. It can be deployed around urban areas where this sort of ecosystem is lacking, and bring some nature and life into areas where there isn't much, as well as helping a threatened species. The small ecosystem can be transported and attached to light poles around cities and towns and provides a safe but visible space for monarchs. By creating a small protected ecosystem for them to grow and thrive in, the Mini Monarch Nursery addresses the current endangerment of monarch butterflies due to loss of habitat caused by farmers and illegal loggers cutting down the milkweed plant, as well as spraying the plant with dangerous pesticides. The milkweed plant is crucial to the life cycle of a monarch butterfly as not only do the monarch caterpillars need it as their food source, but milkweed leaves are the only place that monarch butterflies will lay their eggs. The Mini Monarch Nursery helps to increase their population by giving them a safe place to complete their life cycle, while also providing a learning experience for people in urban areas who can watch the monarchs turn into butterflies. It can be both a private initiative, or put in public spaces and taken care of by community members who want to help and learn about monarchs. This may inspire people in urban communities to become more involved in helping nature and preserving the beautiful wildlife of our world. The Mini Monarch Nursery can be placed along the monarch butterflies' migration route, allowing the newly hatched butterflies to migrate and increase the population.  

The Mini Monarch Nursery Melina:
Mini-Monarch Nursery: A small urban milkweed habitat in which monarch butterflies can safely complete their life cycle before being released. This cylindrical habitat fixes around a pole in an urban space and provides the necessities for a monarch to mature: milkweed growing from it’s floor for the caterpillars to eat, a ceiling for the chrysalises to hang from, a door to release the butterflies, air holes, and a clear, protective shell.

Elementary school students gasp in awe as they watch a monarch butterfly hatch from it’s chrysalis; as they set it free, they have not only learned a great deal about the maturing of the monarch, but have also contributed to preventing this species’ extinction. As farmers and loggers illegally cut down wild milkweed plants and spray them with dangerous pesticides, they destroy the sole food source of the monarch caterpillar and the specific leaves on which the butterflies lay their eggs. This has critically impacted the population of the Monarch butterfly, causing mass die-offs during migration. This is a consequential issue that cannot wait, and the Mini-Monarch Nursery is the perfect creation and installment to face it - While also building an eco-friendly community in urban areas! This miniature ecosystem consists of an extended annulus protected by a clear mesh that attaches by hinges around a public light pole and holds dirt in which milkweed grows. The community members with the responsibility of preserving the habitat put Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed plants through the quarter door, and passerby are able to observe the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly up-close. The caterpillars inch up the walls and form chrysalises on the inner ceiling, and once the chrysalises have developed into butterflies, the Monarchs can be released. The Mini-Monarch Nursery can be placed in any urban location  along the migration path of the Monarch butterfly, to provide a protected home for the Monarch to be raised. Let your heart fly and save the Monarch butterflies with the Mini-Monarch Nursery!