Sara Dykman may be on a solo long-distance bicycle trek, but she's never entirely alone — she always has the company of her butterfly pals.
That's because she's following the monarch butterflies on their epic migration from Mexico, through the U.S. to Canada and back, and she often meets up with her little winged friends.
Dykman said she often sees monarch butterflies when she's cycling, as there's usually milkweed — the butterflies' primary food source — growing alongside roadways.
She said it depresses her when she sees that the side of roadways, and milkweed along with it, have been mowed.
The American biologist started out in Mexico in March on her Butter Bike tour, and said she plans to arrive back in Mexico in late November, a little behind the monarchs.
“I want to be a voice for the monarch,” she said.
“There's been a 90-per-cent decline in monarchs in the last 20 years. If we don't all pitch in and do our part, then this migration, which is the only multi-generational, multi-national migration on the planet, will disappear.”
Dykman made it to Sudbury last week — the northernmost part of her journey — and spoke to schoolchildren at Algonquin Road Public School on Friday.
“This is my favourite part, is speaking to kids,” she said.
“They're excited and ask good questions … I hope that when they see a monarch next time, they'll remember the journey and that they're a part of it and they have a part to play in the migration.”
Dykman encourages people to help the monarchs by planting milkweed in their yards.
“We need to start reinventing what we think beautiful is,” she said.
“A green grass lawn that's home to nothing is not beautiful, but native wildlife with milkweed and monarchs, that's beautiful. So let's all share the planet.”
If you'd like to follow Dykman's journey, check out her Facebook page and her website.
