Carrol Fibich's Photo Wins National Magazine Contest

Backyard photograph easily wins over voters who favored it above professionals' work.

A picture Carrol Fibich took just a few steps outside her back door handily won a contest sponsored by a national nature magazine, outpolling more than 1,300 other entrants including many professional photographers. Voting closed at 11:59 p.m. Monday in Wildflower Magazine's second annual photo contest, which required only that a native American wildflower be part of the compositi Fibich, a Brookfield retiree who lived in Wauwatosa for 34 years, received 4,329 votes for her photo of a monarch butterfly feeding on butterfly milkweed blossoms. Her nearest competitor got 3,762 votes. Fibich said the inspiration for her shot came easily. A lifelong gardener and nature lover, she has in retirement become a particularly avid fan and advocate for…

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Local Woman Running First in National Photo Contest

Picture of beloved monarch butterfly on backyard bush puts amateur Carrol Fibich just ahead of professional nature photographer, and they are both far ahead of the pack.

As of Friday evening, a long-time Wauwatosa resident, now retired to a Brookfield condo for a number of years, was running in first place in a national magazine's nature photography contest. Wildflower Magazine sponsors the contest, and among nearly 700 entrants, Carrol Fibich is leading the pack but neck-and-neck with one strong competitor. Photos in the contest need only feature native wildflowers in some way. Fibich calls herself an amateur photographer at best, so she's thrilled and a little astonished to find that she and a professional nature photographer are far out in front of even the best of the rest. Fibich's contribution, with 1,961 votes as of 7:45 p.m Friday, still held a slim margin over Carol Fox Henrichs of Texas, who had …

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Seeds Sought to Help Monarchs in State, National Effort

'We need your seed,' says national institute that researches and advocates for beloved butterfly. Wisconsin is a particular target for collecting, growing and replanting.

Wauwatosa is being asked to take a special part in a national effort to bolster sagging numbers of monarch butterflies. The leading monarch butterfly research and advocacy center in the nation wants us to spread the word that it needs Wisconsin seeds. According to Monarch Watch, populations of the beloved insect have been on the decline for a decade. The main reason, according to the University of Kansas-based organization: The introduction of genetically modified "Roundup Ready" crops, which allow heavy applications of herbicides that have destroyed the only food that monarch caterpillars can eat: milkweed plants. Lately, new fears have arisen that changing weather patterns are exacerbating the population problem, with last year the worst…

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Folks Flock to See Monarch Trail, Blue Moon

Kids and adults get an education about development plans for the County Grounds and how Friends group has worked to save a place in it for the migratory monarch butterfly.

When all the parking spaces at the Milwaukee County Parks building were full up, people started parking on the peripheries. And when they filled up, they started parking along the drive, until it was full, too. So, you'd have to call it a capacity crowd Friday night for the Friends of the Monarch Trail's Blue Moon Party. Kicking off at 5:30 p.m., there was kite-flying and face-painting for kids, and an education on migration for them and adults. Barb Agnew, the founder of the trail and leader of the Friends group, brought along a big hanging net bag filled with a variety of butterflies that she raises in her floral shop, Barb and Dick's Wildflower, 12326 Watertown Plank Rd. Among them were, of course, monarchs, the big orange and black …

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Monarch Enthusiasts Celebrate 'Once in a Blue Moon'

County Grounds celebration of astronomical rarity also calls attention to biological phenomenon of migrating monarchs.

It happens once every two or three years, or, to be more precise, seven times every 19 years. A blue moon. That's when, according to modern reckoning, you have two full moons in the same month. That will happen Friday evening, and the Friends of the Monarch Trail invite you to celebrate the celestial event with an earthly one, a Blue Moon Party beginning at 5:30 p.m. on the County Grounds. The party will feature kite flying (wind permitting) and Irish music presented by Ceol Cairde. Other activities may include scientific tagging of any early migrating monarch butterflies that may be wafting through the County Grounds. Guests are encouraged and permited to park at the Milwaukee County Parks Department Headquarters Building lot, 9480 …

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Flying Free on the County Grounds

Butterfly release is a hit with young and old at fundraiser for the Monarch Trail.

Red admirals, buckeyes, commas, mourning cloaks and, of course, monarchs – all types of native Wisconsin butterflies – went fluttering off Sunday across the County Grounds. Raised from eggs collected by Barb Agnew, the colorful insects were released to the cheers of a small crowd of well-wishers at a fundraiser for the Monarch Trail on the grounds. Agnew keeps her butterfly rearing operation in her floral shop, Barb & Dick's Wildflower, 12326 Watertown Plank Rd., and is the founder of the Monarch Trail and Friends of the Monarch Trail. Agnew also grows milkweed seedlings at the shop, many of which she handed out Sunday in exchange for donations to supports the trail. Milkweeds are the only plants on which monarch butterflies will lay their…

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Monarch Trail Fundraiser Alive with Possibilities

Live milkweed plants – and monarch butterfly pupae – are among the featured guests at event, and you can take them home.

The Friends of the Monarch Trail will hold its first fundraising event of the year on Sunday with a milkweed plant sale and an unusual auction. The gathering is from 3 to 5 p.m. at the west side of the Milwaukee County Parks Department parking lot, 9480 Watertown Plank Rd. That is also the trailhead of the Monarch Trail, which winds north through meadows on the County Grounds and then circles the Eschweiler Campus. A protected habitat area around the Eschweilers each year attracts flocks of migrating monarch butterflies in mid-September, which fill the meadows by day and certain roosting trees by night. Sunday's fundraiser offers an opportunity to buy young milkweed plants, the only plants on which monarchs lay eggs and upon which their …

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Jim Price

6:50 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Well, no, I doubt everyone does. Perhaps you could explain.   more ›

Name That Street, Part II: Committee Holds Off Pending Further Investigation

Public interest in christening new County Grounds road puts action aside for at least two weeks.

Thanks in large part to a Wauwatosa Patch reader, the city will put more thought and research into choosing an appropriate name for its first new street in many years. Wauwatosa will own and maintain a road that will wind through UWM's Innovation Park development and provide access to new county parkland and a butterfly and wildlife habitat preserve. It is up to the Common Council to approve names for new city streets. The Community Development Committee, meeting Tuesday night, was prepared to send a recommendation forward to the full Common Council when it had only one proposal on the table: Technology Parkway, the name preferred by the UWM Real Estate Foundation, which purchased the land and is directing development. But suggestions from…

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Wild Wauwatosa

Monarch Enthusiasts Paint a Landscape for Preservation

The Monarch Trail on the County Grounds is increasingly popular, especially as marvelous migration begins.

The annual monarch butterfly migration season is just getting under way. Thanks to the efforts of the Friends of the Monarch Trail, the Milwaukee County Grounds has become ground zero for butterfly enthusiasts. As they have for several years now, the Friends organized a Migration Launch Party, which took place Saturday evening. The Monarch Trail was established in 2006 in response to the loss of critical habitat areas due to developments that were taking place on the County Grounds. Friends founder “Butterfly Barb" Agnew, along with a team of volunteers, created the trail to raise public awareness about the international importance of this site, which is an increasingly rare roosting place for monarchs and other species, including birds, …

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Wild Wauwatosa

Where My Front Yard Meets Our Big Back Yard

A bit about butterflies and marital bliss, and an invitation to learn more tonight with the Friends of the Monarch Trail.

My wife, Kathy, and I some years ago hit upon a happy coincidence. She loves raising butterflies, and I love raising plants. More specifically, even though Kathy loves raising any butterflies, she is particularly fond of working with everybody's favorite, the monarch. And I, much more specifically, am passionate about raising not just any plants but rare native plants. Since monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on plants of the milkweed family, and since several Wisconsin milkweeds are among our rarest and most beautiful plant species, this amounted to an invitation to me to fill our front yard with my favorites, in order to attract hers. And so to the point. This column, Wild Wauwatosa, is intended to remind readers that our community …

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