“We’ll have to be a little spry on rocks, but you can do it,” said Bill Corey, 66, as he approached the creek leading up to Sennett Hole. A few moist and slanted rocks created a sparse path across the stream, but he was not discouraged.
An Eno State Park regular, Corey came equipped with a wide-brim sun hat, two jars of homemade blueberry jam, and dozens of milkweed pods. He jumped from rock to rock, traversing the rippling creek to find the perfect sunny homes for his milkweed seeds. Corey’s mission is to save monarch butterflies, the iconic orange and black species now at risk for extinction.
Through the “Milkweed for Monarchs” effort in collaboration with the Creation Justice Committee of Durham’s Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Corey invites other Durham residents to plant local native milkweed throughout the community. Monarchs need the plant — which has rapidly disappeared as farmers increasingly relied on herbicides — to survive, as it’s their food source and egg-laying location. Therefore, replanting milkweed along the monarchs’ east coast migratory route is one of the best ways to aid repopulation.
Corey, who first learned about monarchs from his mother, comes from an “ecologically-minded” family. Growing up, he regularly attended environmental seminars with his parents, who he says bought 100 acres of land solely for conservation.
Ten years ago, when Corey and his husband, Garry Lipscomb, learned of the butterflies’ declining population, they began planting milkweed seeds in their garden and in local woodlands. In 2021, halfway into their effort, they decided to scale up their project.
Corey brought the idea to their church’s Creation Justice Committee, which was established shortly after the 2016 presidential election.
Since then, the committee has worked on local environmental projects, such as participating in Creek Week with Keep Durham Beautiful and collaborating with the Durham Community Land Trustees to help plant pollinators at their properties. To support Corey’s “Milkweed for Monarchs” initiative, the church helps distribute free common milkweed seeds to churchgoers and to customers at Foster’s Market each spring.
“This is the sort of thing that I think has been so protective for the mental health of members of our church,” said Felix Flanders, the church youth director and one of the committee’s founders. “It’s tough out there for a lot of people, and I think having little actionable projects like the monarch project feeds resiliency and connection with each other.”
In addition to the seeds, Corey and Lipscomb disseminate packets with instructions for growing milkweed and hints about the places it’s most likely to thrive. According to their literature, milkweed requires six hours of sun per day and lots of water, so it should be planted in moist areas exposed to ample sun. It’s best to plant the seeds early in spring to grow through summer and fall, when the butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico.
This spring, Corey has found a particularly good spot on the banks of the Eno, which was devastated by Tropical Storm Chantal this past July. The massive floods upturned fallow soil and huge trees along the river, allowing sun to reach previously shaded areas and creating ideal conditions for milkweed seed to germinate.
In the late afternoon sun one of the first 85 degree days of March, Corey took out milkweed pods from his pocket, the dandelion-esuqe floss making some escape his hold and tickling his cheeks.
One could hear the faint chatter of locals across the river, lounging on the banks of Sennett Hole.
“When I’m distributing, a lot of times, I think about what would mother nature do,” Corey said. “The plant would go here, and the wind would blow that way,” he remarked as he tossed the seeds into the wind.
Corey walked across the stretch of the river, dropping one seed where the “water will flow through” and another where the area has “formed a natural basin” — sounding as if he had a sixth sense for the best milkweed locations.
Some years the milkweed crew doesn’t have much luck, and some years the milkweed is nice and healthy, Corey said. He expects more success this year because of a new technique he has implemented of soaking the seeds in water before planting.
“I’m learning a lot,” he said.
olivia prusky
