Passersby and patrons may have noticed the Prairie du Chien Memorial Library is now designated as a waystation for monarch butterflies — the monarchs certainly did.

According to Library Director Elisabeth Byers, she applied to make the library a waystation after encouragement from the community.

“There [were] some lovely patrons who have mentioned that we should be registered and that they thought we should apply. I didn’t know how it would all work, but I thought it was too neat of an idea not to try,” she said.

The site is now listed on the National Registry and has signage displayed for the public.

A waystation is a garden area supplying a mix of plant species tailored for monarchs to feed and breed. There are thousands of these managed habitats across the United States, according to the Registry.

“Monarchs can use even small bits of habitat, so anyone can make a difference for them by planting gardens that contain milkweed and nectar sources for adult butterflies and in which pesticides aren’t used. Spreading these habitats as broadly as possible ensures that monarchs are able to find the resources they need as they move across the landscape,” said Karen Oberhauser, a conservation biologist specializing in monarch butterflies and a former director of the UW-Madison’s Arboretum.

Monarchs are important pollinators and need certain types of plants, such as goldenrod, coneflowers and blazing star, among many others. Milkweed is especially important for monarchs because it is the only plant the caterpillars can eat, and the adults feed on the plant’s nectar.

They are also a predominantly migratory species that travels from southern Canada and the northern United States to California, Florida and Mexico during the fall and vice versa in the spring. Small plots of vegetation that provide essential food resources help the butterflies survive and reproduce on their journey.

“When there are large expanses of land without habitat, monarchs need to search farther to find the resources that they require. This can be especially true in urban areas where lawns (which provide habitat for nothing), concrete, roads, and buildings take up so much of the available space,” said Oberhauser.

Ed Block, a founding member of the library’s Landscape Committee, said the library’s garden area was not intentionally designed to become a monarch waystation.

“It’s mostly native plantings around the building, and most of them are planted for a reason,” he said. “We thought about each area — even the alley. We wanted to put native plantings in to attract insects of all kinds... it was to get everything.”

The committee’s goal is to make the library aesthetically welcoming for the people who make a daily, weekly, monthly or just occasional pilgrimage there. Attracting the monarchs is just a bonus of their hard work.

“The library is like the center of town. It’s one place where everyone can come together, so I thought, ‘How do we make this thing attractive?’” said Block.

“Thanks to the habitat and flowers that have been chosen and planted by our wonderful landscaping committee, they have made it a wonderful and very welcoming and protected location for the monarchs,” said Byers.