FORE! GOLFING IN THE RGV!
This week features the Cottonwood Country Club & Golf Course!
UPCOMING EVENTS!
RECIPE CONNECTION!
Check out this week’s listings of what’s happening in the RGV!
Executive Chef Bettina Tolin shares a delicious coffee cake baking recipe!
Welcome Home See details on page 6.
See calendar on page 18.
Try her recipe on page 23.
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WINTER TEXAN
VOLUME 2 • ISSUE 4 • November 9, 2016
• • • your official connection to the rio grande valley • • •
Monarch Butterfly
T
here’s nothing like a surprise visit from your daughter (who is off at college)! Imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang Friday and my one-and-only daughter was at our front door! The Valley is a magical place, and I remember when I went off to college, I wanted to get as far away from the Valley as I could. Denton, Texas, was as far as I got, and the second I got there, I started counting the days until I could get home for Thanksgiving. I was homesick--for my family and friends and for the place I thought I wanted to never come back to. Now I can’t imagine being anywhere else. I love it in the Rio Grande Valley, and I hope you feel a sense of longing for South Texas when you’re not with us. I also hope you are just as excited as a teenager coming home from college for the first time when you’re on the long drive south. We have a lot of things in store for you this season...and we can’t wait to share them all with you! • We’re just connecting the dots,
Kristi
City of McAllen Mayors Monarch Pledge for a Champion City
Monarch Butterflies’ Migration Tracked Through Generations by Christopher Munoz, Quinta Mazatlan
The
Lower Rio Grande Valley (L.R.G.V.) is fortunate to sit along the migratory pathway of one of the most emblematic butterflies of the Americas— the Monarch Butterfly. Not only is the Valley a waypoint of this migratory species in transit to the mountains of Mexico, but it geographically represents the convergence of distinct routes stemming from a multitude of locations throughout North America. With continuing urbanization, these butterflies are increasingly losing habitat, making the completion of their journey a less plausible endeavor. This means that Monarch butterfly conservation is largely contingent upon the kind of vegetation people are growing within developed areas. Passing monarchs require flower nectar from various species of native, L.R.G.V. plants. Since monarchs employ four generations to complete this 3,000-mile migration, the availability of native milkweed plants along the way is imperative. Native milkweeds often grow unrecognized, even in many home
Climbing Milkweed Pods
Climbing Milkweed Flowers
gardens. Of our native milkweeds, the climbing milkweed (Funastrum cynanchoides) is one of the more well-distributed milkweeds throughout the Valley and can frequently be seen growing in gardens and along fencerows despite not having been planted by property owners. Because this plant is not readily recognized by the general public, it is routinely removed from our Valley gardens as a miscellaneous weed. The American essayist Waldo Emerson once referred to a weed as “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” As the issue of monarch conservation becomes more apparent to the public, people are discovering the ecological virtues of
Zizotes or Prairie Milkweed native to the LRGV
such plants. The City of McAllen has become the second city in the United States to pledge to the National Wildlife Federation’s 24 action items, a community-wide commitment to increase and establish Monarch habitat within the city. Citizens MONARCH MIGRATION CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 >>
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