Sometime this month, a monarch butterfly will lift off from a meadow on the Oak Ridges Moraine and begin a journey that ranks among the longest in the insect world. It will fly up to 4,000 kilometers to a mountain forest in central Mexico that it has never seen. Every Monarch that hatches in your garden between June and August lives the same short life: two weeks as a caterpillar, two weeks as a chrysalis, then about four weeks as an adult spent almost entirely on mating and

When we think of prairies and meadows, a certain image often comes to mind: tall, golden grasses waving gently in the wind. Even if you don’t know them by name, you have probably seen a few grasses pop up again and again: the cylindrical heads of Timothy Grass, bunched seeds of Orchard Grass, and swaying stems of Smooth Brome. All of these grasses were introduced to Canada to provide forage for domestic livestock. Prairies across the Oak Ridges Moraine used to look a little

July is a big month for the fluttering insects on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Ontario Butterfly Atlas Counts and National Moth Week both take place over the coming weeks, offering a chance to get outside, count and record some incredible insects, and contribute to important annual datasets. Giant Swallowtail Butterfly on a thistle Butterflies and moths are most often celebrated for their role as pollinators. Indeed, many species seek out nectar from flowers and pick up pollen gra