By Teri Berg

JCMG volunteers and helpers from Forever Green recently assisted local butterfly enthusiasts tag and release 50 monarchs. 

The tag-and-release event was held in Coralville on Sunday, Sept. 14, at Forever Green Nursery, which hosts monarch tagging events every September. JCMG veterans Carolyn and Mike Murphy have helped with Forever Green’s tagging events for the past 10 years as a thank-you for supporting the local Butterfly House project. Forever Green founder Lucy Hershberger said her family’s nursery has been tagging for about 15 years. 

Monarch tagging events are citizen science in action. Across the country, in late summer and early fall, volunteer groups get together to capture wild or reared monarch butterflies, attach tiny numbered tags to their wings, and then let them go in order to track their migration routes and population numbers. This collaborative research, organized by programs like the University of Kansas-based Monarch Watch, helps scientists understand monarch migration journeys of sometimes thousands of miles; the survival rates during these butterflies’ epic, multigenerational travels from Canada and the U.S. to central Mexico and California, where populations overwinter; and the impact of environmental factors on their population, habitats and life cycle.

Participants at Forever Green’s event don’t have to catch monarchs; the butterflies they tagged had been raised or purchased. After tagging the monarchs, local attendees learned about registering tagging data and how to report when they’ve found a tagged monarch. At last, participants gathered together to release the butterflies all at once. Each helper received a certificate with the tag codes and information on Monarch Watch.

“The Midwest usually starts tagging the super monarchs in late August,” said Carolyn Murphy, who raises monarchs and helps with local tagging events. “We only tag the 4-5th generation of monarchs” – so-called super monarchs are the last generation of monarch butterflies born in late summer and early fall – “as they are born with one mission, and that is to fuel up and fly 2,000 miles to the Mexican mountains.

“Around the end of October, Halloween, the sanctuaries start seeing the monarchs,” she explained. While Halloween is observed in the United States, Mexico commemorates the Day of the Dead with the arrival of migrating monarch butterflies.

The Coralville event also featured a seedball-making activity, a scavenger hunt and educational displays.

Butterfly House project coordinators Carolyn and Mike Murphy thank Mahmooda Ahmad, Alice Linhart, April Nevers, Sandy Kessler, and Angela and Ryan Murphy for helping.

^{Top left: JCMG veteran Carolyn Murphy shows a small participant how to hold a butterfly at Forever Green’s monarch tagging event in Coralville on Sept. 14, 2025. Center: JCMG volunteer Angela Murphy holds a tagged monarch butterfly at Forever Green Nursery in Coralville on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. Top right: JCMG volunteers April Nevers (middle left) and Ryan Murphy help two butterfly enthusiasts at the seed-ball table. Bottom: Visitors and volunteers at the JCMG/Forever Green monarch tagging event on Sept. 14, 2025, enjoyed the butterfly house and other activities. PHOTOS/Alice Linhart}