Ohio State’s Environmental Professionals Network to host annual signature Earth Day celebration

Take Flight! is an Earth Day celebration of local and global efforts to protect and restore the monarch butterfly. The monarch is an icon of our planet’s biodiversity. Its population in Ohio and globally borders on extinction* though there is hope in sight!    

The monarch has a remarkable migration story cycling between Mexico to Canada across the United States. The U.S. Midwest region, including Ohio, serves as a vital corridor in this journey. The Midwest produces and nurtures multiple generations of monarchs each year and serves as the origin of most monarchs that migrate to Mexico. Monarch populations have declined by over 70% in North America, and a global conservation effort is required to restore them.   

This is a global restoration effort and individuals can truly make a difference. This program focuses on solutions and provides tangible resources for all to contribute, including landscape planning by public and private landowners. Join New York Times bestselling author Dr. Doug Tallamy and Jane Breckinridge, director, Euchee Butterfly Farm, and an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, as they teach us how to build monarch habitat in our yards and communities and share inspirational cultural stories on the connections we have to this iconic butterfly.   

Dr. Tallamy and Ms. Breckinridge will share the virtual stage on April 21 with leading Ohioans from private, public, and non-profit sectors who are taking action across Ohio to protect pollinator habitat and will show us how individuals and communities can engage locally to make a difference in this global conservation movement.  

Ohio State’s Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) is proud to host Take Flight!—its eighth annual signature Earth Day event—with the School of Environment and Natural Resources in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. This year’s event is in partnership with TEDxOhioStateUniversitySalon and Monarch Joint Venture.   

On behalf of EPN and its partners, we hope you can join us. To learn more about the event and to register, visit go.osu.edu/epnapr21.

*The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that listing the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act is “warranted but precluded” on Dec. 15, 2020.

Program flyer