FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Town to Dedicate Garden to “Butterfly Woman” Maraleen Manos-Jones
Contact: Eric Stewart, (845) 616-0764
Saturday, August 26, at 11:00 am., the Town of Marbletown will dedicate a pollinator garden created at their town hall to celebrated author, lecturer and environmental activist, Maraleen Manos-Jones, a.k.a. “The Butterfly Woman.” The Marbletown Environmental Conservation Commission’s Maraleen Manos-Jones Pollinator Garden put down roots in 2016, and the volunteers of the Commission (ECC) are currently expanding it.
The event will be marked by words from Town Supervisor Michael Warren and will include a presentation by Manos-Jones. The first American woman to find the monarch’s overwintering grounds in the mountains of central Mexico in 1977 following a two-month search, Manos-Jones, an internationally recognized expert on the topic, has been working tirelessly for over four decades to protect monarch habitats in Mexico, the US and Canada, and to educate people on the role monarchs and other pollinators play in securing our food supply.
The garden started with four 8 by 8 foot raised beds to which volunteers are adding another two. It features a host of native plants, annuals, perennials and herbs designed to offer food and shelter to our threatened pollinators, including European honeybees, native bees, butterflies, birds and, of course, monarchs. The garden was designed by local garden designer and ECC commissioner Eric Stewart with considerable help from other members of the committee. Special thanks for the generous donation of organic top soil and mulch goes to bulk landscape supplier Croswell Enterprises, Ltd., located on Route 209 in North Marbletown, and to Davenport Farms in Stone Ridge, Victoria Gardens in Rosendale and members of the community for their donation of plants.
According to Manos-Jones, “I am grateful to the Marbletown ECC for this honor and appreciative of all whose hard work has made this possible, with a special thank you to landscape designer Eric Stewart for creating such beautiful pollinator gardens. As I have inspired this garden, it is my hope that it will inspire many individuals and communities to do the same. Together, we can save our pollinators, our food and our planet by planting gardens.”
The Marbletown Town Hall and the Marbletown Environmental Conservation Commission’s Maraleen Manos-Jones Pollinator Garden are located at the Rondout Municipal Complex, 1925 Lucas Avenue, the former Rosendale Elementary School. The building—often cited as a model of good governance and cost sharing among New York municipalities—houses the offices and municipal courts of both the towns of Marbletown and Rosendale.
All are welcome to attend the dedication.
