Nests are easy-to-spot signs of new life. I write about them with some frequency. Other indicators of an irrepressible commitment to life are more subtle. Above you see an old table covered with milkweed leaves. On these leaves are 43 viable monarch butterfly eggs and 6 larvae. A small number of us have spent the last couple of summers establishing a monarch waystation behind my house. A beautiful swirl of rich land was covered in thick black plastic much of last summer, a slow but less toxic method of killing the grass beneath. When the plastic came up, twenty-eight yards of mulch were spread to discourage future weeds, and then the first shrubs were planted. This summer soaker hoses have been buried in the mulch to get them beyond the sharp teeth of rabbits who chew on them. With all the pollinators in mind, there are now young lead plants, cone flowers, phlox, prairie drop seed, asters, liatris, little bluestem, butterfly weed, milkweed, and other native plants carefully placed in the soil. Those the rabbits have feasted on often still have stubs of growth attached to healthy roots. They are being dug up, potted, and nursed back to health for later replanting. An inventory of the yard today turned up the eggs and the larvae. One of us has a protected monarch nursery space where the eggs and larvae will reside until several stages later when they emerge from their chrysalises as adult butterflies. How glorious it will be to release them over the waystation. And today a tiny leopard frog hopped into sight. What a welcome appearance! Amphibians are the first to retreat when a habitat is unhealthy. Both the eggs and a frog are miniature promises of new life in a habitat growing richer for all of us.
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