September 17, 2024 by Decorah Leader

GRAND OPENING CD SPECIAL

BY ZACH JENSEN STAFF WRITER

Decorah Park and Recreation teamed up with Winneshiek County Conservation Sept. 4 to put on an educational and tagging program about monarchs — also known as tigers of the sky and the black-veined brown butterﬂy — at the Decorah Community Prairie. Decorah Park and Recreation volunteer Miriam Patton and WCC Edu-

cation and Outreach Coordinator Hanna Meyer taught participants how to identify male and female monarchs and talked about their migration patterns. Patton and Meyer also helped attendees tag monarchs by applying stickers less than half the diameter of a penny to one of the butterﬂies’ wings.

Patton, who has been fascinated by monarchs much of her life, said there are two groups of monarchs in North America

which migrate south each fall — the eastern group includes Iowa, while the western group is based west of the Rocky Mountains and the insects there migrate to southern California.

“It started in 1937,” said Patton. “A professor in Canada noticed they’d disappear, so he wanted to know where they went. It wasn’t until 1975 that the butterﬂies were found in El Rosario, Mexico.”

Each year, according to monarchwatch.org, millions of monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains migrate south to a sanctuary in El Rosario, Mexico.

Meyer said the monarch doesn’t have any predators in the United States primarily because of a key component in their diet.

“They eat milkweed, which contains toxins, so they’re poisonous,” she said. “But, in Mexico, there are two species of birds and one species of mouse that eat them. So, they’re preyed on in Mexico.”

The monarch population has suffered in recent years, Meyer said, but the cause for the low numbers isn’t clear, and this isn’t the ﬁrst time the population has struggled.

“They go out and ﬁnd eggs out in the wild and bring them indoors to raise them,” Patton said. “We’re ﬁnding that the percentage of indoor-raised Monarchs getting to Mexico is way less than the wild-raised Monarchs.”

Tracking the monarch population is important, because 75 percent of the world’s food depends on pollinators like birds, bees and butterﬂies.

“All pollinators are important,” Patton said. “A huge percentage of our food needs natural pollinators. Without monarchs, we wouldn’t have good crops or good gardens or beautiful ﬂowers, and that’s why they’re important.”

Full article can be found in the September 12 Decorah Leader.

OpenHouseOpenHouse

Women’s

Health Day to be held at Waukon

Event Center

The Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital together with Elliott Jewelers of Waukon are excited to announce they will soon be hosting their 19th Women’s Health Day wellness event on Tuesday, September 24, at the Waukon Event Center. All ages are invited to attend any part of this educational event, which will begin at 11 a.m. with a wellness fair, offering a variety of free health tests and information. A luncheon and program will be held from noon to 1 p.m. that day. Ticket may be purchased for $15 per person. Proceeds will be used to purchase a new iSTAT chemistry and blood gas analyzer used to run many critical tests in the Veterans Memorial Hospital laboratory. For more information, please call Veterans Memorial Hospital at 568-3411.

Potato harvest

Following Glenwood Lutheran Church’s Sunday morning service September 8, members of the congregation met at the church’s potato patch. Loren Wilkins, who coordinated the potato garden with Dale Nimrod, said they hoped to harvest up to 900 pounds of potatoes this year — all of which will be donated to food pantries in Winneshiek and Allamakee counties. Pictured here is two-year-old Eli Nimrod helping harvest potatoes. (Decorah Leader photo by Zach Jensen) Check out more potato harvest information and photos in the Sept. 12 Decorah Leader and online at decorahleader.com.

SHOP HOP

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Fall Fest 2024

Third annual Decorah Gear Exchange to be held this month

Prepare gently used outdoor recreation items for the third annual Decorah Gear Exchange, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 and noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29 at Pulpit Rock Brewing Company, 207 College Drive, in Decorah. The Decorah Gear Exchange aims to help individuals sell and buy gently used outdoor recreation items, explore outdoor recreation opportunities in the Decorah area, and support Decorah Park and Recreation projects. This event will allow individuals to sell and/or buy new or gently used outdoor gear such as kayaks, canoes, tents, backpacks, ﬁshing gear, bicycles, skis, lifejackets, car racks, camp stoves and more.

No ﬁrearms or weapons will be accepted. Resources to help explore outdoor recreation opportunities throughout the area will also be available. Those interested in selling outdoor gear may drop items at Pulpit Rock Brewing from noon to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27. The seller may set the sale price and receive 60 percent of the sale — individuals may also choose to donate the full proceeds of their sale to Decorah Parks and Recreation. Unsold items must be picked up from 2-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29 or be donated. For more information visit https:// visitdecorah.com/decorahgearexchange/.

Service Notice

JANET UHLENHAKE, 70, of Calmar, died Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, at Gundersen Health System in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Calmar with Rev. Henry Huber ofﬁciating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Calmar.

‘Songwriters in the Round’ acoustic concert Oct. 5

A unique acoustic concert in Lanesboro, Minnesota will highlight regional songwriters Corey Koehler, Matthew French, Amanda Grace and Sarah Peterson. The ﬁnal performance of a three part concert series, the Songwriters in the Round concert will be held from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5 at Lanesboro’s historic St. Mane Theatre.

Performers will share with the audience their original songs and stories and inspira-

tion behind them. The concert is presented in a Nashville-style round robin format, which allows each artist to shine while drawing listeners into the musical heart of each song.

In addition to performing together on stage that evening, songwriter Amanda Grace will lead a songwriting workshop earlier in the day, called “Titles That Tear It Up.” The workshop will take place at 2 p.m. Oct. 5

at the St. Mane Theatre upper level studio. Participants at any experience level can register for the workshop for a small fee.

Performers

Winona’s Corey Koehler crosses genres to craft performances that truly connect with audiences, making sure the crowd always leaves relaxed and with a smile on their faces. Minneapolis-based singer/ songwriter Matthew French is

a former minister and current Gibson guitar collector who creates music to connect people through shared love and loss. Amanda Grace’s roots as a pianist lead her to emphasize melody with ballads wrapped in warm vocals that drift between folk, alt-pop, and Americana. Sarah Peterson, the creative mind behind Songwriters in the Round, writes lyrics that will break your heart and heal it at the same time.

Tickets are available now at lanesboroarts.org. The St. Mane Theatre is located at 206 Parkway Ave. N., Lanesboro. Thank you to all the fantastic staff at Winn Med for helping me get past the COVID issue. It was greatly appreciated.

–Gene Dale

Oneota Valley Community Orchestra to open concert season October 6

season with a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6 at the Decorah High School Auditorium.

Award-winning OVCO Music Director Matthew Cody will conduct the orchestra in a program which will conclude with Johann de Meij’s Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings.” This is a popular composition originally for wind orchestra, not to be confused with the Howard Shore movie themes. The program opens with “Russian Sailor’s Dance” by Reinhold Glière. Then, Luther College’s Miko Kominami will join the orchestra to play the ever famous Piano Concerto in A minor by the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Pianist Miko Kominami, in-

(Photo submitted)

structor in music at Luther College and principal keyboardist of Orchestra Iowa, is a graduate of The Juilliard School. In addition to her solo engagements, Ms. Kominami regularly tours throughout the nation with the

Murasaki Duo, a cello-piano ensemble. The duo has released recordings on the Centaur Records and Delos labels and has concertized internationally, including Ireland, the UK, Israel, Norway and Denmark. Kominami can also be heard on additional recordings released by Delos, Innova, and Fleur de Son Classics.

The Oct. 6 concert is free and open to the public and is sponsored by Marion E. Jerome Foundation and Depot Outlet. Visit ovcorchestra.org for additional information.