Wisconsin Life

[shimmery music] - I'm gliding through the Butterfly Gardens of Wisconsin, discovering the importance of pollinators and native plants to our state.

I first landed at the entrance of the butterfly maze to chat with Co-Founder Marty Voight about how this enchanting property came to be.

– Marty Voight: When we first bought this property in the '80s, we were going to use it for botanical gardens, and the site assessor looked at it and told us that we had 16 different types of butterflies that he saw at that moment.

They would not exist here anymore if we had a botanical gardens, so then he decided that we would turn it into a butterfly gardens.

– Angela: So, really honoring the species that was already here?

- Yes.

- Helping them to stay versus displacing.

- Well, we also have 50 different species of plants.

To me, the most important part about the gardens is that people realize that birds, bees, butterflies, and bats-- but mostly bees-- create over a third of the food we eat.

So, it's important to keep the population up and to keep them healthy.

– Angela: Thank you for sharing.

I did not realize how much bees contributed to so many things that we appreciate.

- Yes.

- So that is very, very important.

[laughs] - But there's lots to see and do here and to help you appreciate nature.

- Angela: Including visiting the hoop house, where I met up with Marty's husband and master gardener, Jack Voight.

– Jack Voight: The butterfly hoop house is a place where people can come and visit and enjoy interaction with various kinds of butterflies.

- And so, it looks like what's in front of us are the monarch butterflies.

– Jack: They're nectaring on a beautiful plant, which is the native plant of this area, the red swamp milkweed.

And so, they're getting nectar from the flower right now.

And so, they're getting primed to also lay their eggs eventually on the underside of the leaf.

- And you mentioned this is a space in which people can interact with the butterflies.

- Very true.

- What does that look like?

- We have-- we give everybody a Gator stick, which is Gatorade on a Q-tip, and we put it on the front of the butterfly, like this.

- You ready to go?

- Huh?

I feel it.

[Jack laughing] - The Butterfly Gardens of Wisconsin offers a place to learn, interact, and get an up-close look at pollinators and butterflies in our state.

[birds chirping]