Monarchs Reared at US Penitentiary Take Flight Rachel Webber - WSUNews
go to original September 19, 2013

A Monarch butterfly tagged with a Washington State University sticker. Entomologist David James is using the tags to track Monarch butterfly migration from the Pacific Northwest. (David James)

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – When a young girl named Rosie found a Monarch butterfly resting on the garage door of her house in Bolinas, Calif., last year, she noticed it had a small, white tag on its wing with a Washington State University e-mail address and an identification number.

She sent a message to WSU entomologist David James, and he recorded that in six weeks the butterfly had made a 600-mile journey from its release in Yakima, Wash., to the coastal town north of San Francisco. The Monarch was one of 12 recaptures from the first year of a rearing and tagging project completed by a small group of offenders — nicknamed the "Butterfly Wranglers” — at Washington State Penitentiary who are raising butterflies for research.

After a successful first year of the butterfly rearing program at the prison, hundreds of Monarch butterflies will be released in September as part of a WSU study answering the question: where do Monarchs in the Pacific Northwest go?

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