Editor’s note: Each week, the San Antonio Report publishes a brief synopsis of the weekly bigcitysmalltown podcast hosted by Robert Rivard, co-founder of the Report.
As autumn slowly creeps into San Antonio, trying to push aside her overbearing and lingering sister summer, local environmental advocates Monika Maeckle and Ashley Bird have monarch butterflies on the mind.
Maeckle, a co-founder of the San Antonio Report who also founded San Antonio’s Annual Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival nine years ago; and Ashley Bird, who now serves as the festival’s director and is also the founder of Blooming with Birdie, spoke at length about the regal butterfly on episode #73 of the bigcitysmalltown podcast.
Maeckle, wife of the podcast’s host Robert Rivard, is a longtime butterfly fanatic who is currently promoting her new book “The Monarch Butterfly Migration, Its Rise and Fall.” It was her obsession with the migratory butterfly that pushed Maeckle to first launch a local festival in 2014, to both pay homage to the winged insect and to bring about local awareness on how to help the fluttering creature.
Both in her book and on the podcast episode, Maeckle discusses the modern challenges migratory monarch butterflies face, from drought and climate change to loss of Mexican habitat, which is being exacerbated by cartel actions. A skilled journalist, Maeckle pushes podcast listeners and readers of her book to enact their own critical thinking skills when considering how pollinators are affected by a changing world and a changing Texas.
Maeckle also discusses the brief history of the annual festival, which will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 5 at Brackenridge Park, next to the zoo entrance. Maeckle has since passed the event organizer’s torch to Bird, who detailed unique experiences that festivalgoers will be able to participate in this weekend — including “becoming” a pollinator and going through migratory experiences via an obstacle course maze. Maeckle will also sign copies of her book from 10 a.m. to noon.
