4-H Club members help make improvements at Lake Meyer Park

Holly Schmitt, Autumn Schmitt, and Winneshiek County Conservation summer intern Hanna Schmitt

Members of the South County Innovators 4-H club have partnered with staffers from Winneshiek County Conservation to make improvements to the Butterfly Garden at Lake Meyer Park.

The 4-H'ers tore out old fencing around the butterfly garden and repainted signage. To add some more color to the garden, they built a giant monarch butterfly photo stand.

The project gave the youth a chance to learn some new skills. "We enjoyed learning how to use the various tools that it takes to install the posts into the ground and how to make cement," said Henry and Adam Schmitt.

During the service-learning project, the participants also learned about the various stages of the monarch life cycle from egg to butterfly and how the caterpillars rely on milkweed.

Funds for this project were provided by the DuPont Pioneer Seed Grant for Iowa 4-H Club Community Improvement Projects.