Butterfly bike ride

ANYA TIKKA
Posted 8/21/12

BARRYVILLE, NY — About 25 bikers and a dozen or so hikers who are also butterfly lovers took a trip along the scenic Upper Delaware River to toss seed pods along the roadside for milkweed plants, …

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Butterfly bike ride

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BARRYVILLE, NY — About 25 bikers and a dozen or so hikers who are also butterfly lovers took a trip along the scenic Upper Delaware River to toss seed pods along the roadside for milkweed plants, which monarch butterflies feed on when they’re in caterpillar stage.

Barryville Chamber of Commerce organized the event, which was held on October 15. The goal is to help bring back the Monarch butterfly population, which is down by as much as 80% from its peak according to one of the organizers, Kelly Ryan of Sunshine Studios, where the walk ended.

Bike riders started at the Zane Grey Museum parking lot in Lackawaxen on the Pike County, PA side, riding along Route 97 for 4.6 miles, and stopping in three places on the way to toss the seed pods. Several children took part, some riding tandem with their parents.

Ryan said that it’s important to bring back monarch butterflies, as well as other pollinators, because many important crops, including chocolate, depend on them.

Barryville’s Stickett Inn owner Roswell Hamrick registered the bike riders at Zane Gray on a crisp but sunny morning, and along the way at the eagle watching stops, other volunteers handed little clay seed pods, infused with seeds and artfully decorated with a sun motif that could be tossed on the roadside, to take root and grow when spring comes. “The clay melts with the first good rain,” Ryan said. The walkers, who went a much shorter distance, were registered separately at the River Road start.

One of the riders was Yolanda Riggle from Barryville, who said she had hesitated until the last moment about coming, in part because of the coldness of the morning. But in the end her better instincts won and she turned up. “It’s important for the environment,” she said.

The bike route went over Roebling Bridge, which is under construction but open during weekends, along Route 97 south, and then curved into River Road, finishing at the other end near Barryville Farmers’ Market.

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