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Edison Middle School students release monarch butterflies

Photo courtesy Edison Middle School S.T.E.M. class and garden club 8th-graders Zach Meadows, back row, Lucy Powers, front left, Kendal Mader, front center, and Laura Bulnes, front right, look at a recently hatched monarch butterfly Monday at Edison Middle School. The butterflies, more than a dozen in total, were released Tuesday into the wild.

PARKERSBURG — More than a dozen monarch butterflies were released Tuesday at Edison Middle School as part of a science and engineering program at the school.

Students in the school’s 8th-grade S.T.E.M. class (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and garden club have been working since last year to create a butterfly garden behind the school. The students, along with staff and volunteers, worked all summer to landscape and plant milkweed, the main food of the monarch caterpillar, along with other flowers to attract bees to pollinate the milkweed.

About 15 butterflies hatched from cocoons last week, though a few escaped over the weekend during a wind storm. The students gathered Tuesday morning to release more than a dozen remaining butterflies, some of which hopefully will return to the garden in the spring to lay new eggs and perpetuate the cycle.

“It’s beautiful,” said 8th-grader Kendal Mader after seeing the butterflies take flight.

“It is a great feeling to see a school project succeed,” said 8th-grader Laura Bulnes.

Photo courtesy Edison Middle School A recently hatched monarch butterfly stretches its wings while perched in a butterfly garden at Edison Middle School. Students helped build the garden and raise more than a dozen butterflies during the summer, releasing them Tuesday.

“All of our work over the summer paid off,” said 8th-grader Lucy Powers.

A nearby flock of birds took to the air when the butterflies were released, with some students voicing concerns the butterflies would become a quick meal.

“I don’t know why there were so many birds,” said 8th-grader Zach Meadows. “I think they were watching the butterflies.”

Even so, many of the butterflies made it to the relative safety of nearby trees, and school officials said they hope to see them return in the spring. The school already has received more donations of milkweed plants and milkweed seed plants to prepare for next year.

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