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Monarch Research Project distributes 20K native trees in October
The Marion-based organization plans another 20,000 trees for next fall
Nov. 5, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: Nov. 5, 2024 8:59 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Linn County lost up to an estimated 1 million trees in the 2020 derecho, and one Marion nonprofit organization has made a dent in replacing them over the past four years — one tree at a time.
The Monarch Research Project, 4970 Lakeside Rd., in October distributed 20,000 native trees to Linn County residents. The trees were free to the recipients, but their local employers partnered with the program and covered the bill.
Clark McLeod, cofounder of the Monarch Research Project, said that since 2020, the nonprofit has worked with 49 organizations, plus three hospitals, four colleges, five governments and every school district in Linn County and private and parochial schools in Cedar Rapids-Marion area.
Residents who participated in the program were able to receive up to three trees. Twenty-five tree species were offered, including six species of oak trees.
McLeod said that oak trees are “by far the greatest food source” for the local ecosystem. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, oak trees support at least 534 species of butterflies and moths with the habitat needed for reproduction. For some pollinator species, oaks are the only host trees available.
“And that’s more than any other tree that you could plant by a long shot,” McLeod said. “So what that means is that our pollinators … are able to lay their eggs on the oak leaf and their caterpillars can eat the leaf.”
Monarch Research Project designed the program so that participants must order an oak species before ordering another kind of tree.
“The reason we did it that way is to keep the quantity and diversity as close to what nature had produce as we could,” McLeod said.
The trees came from Forrest Keeling Nursery of Missouri. Monarch Research Project’s order filled nine semi-trailer trucks and was the biggest shipment of native trees the nursery has ever processed at once.
McLeod said the goal is to distribute another 20,000 trees next fall. Another Monarch Research Project initiative, called One Child, One Tree, provides trees to parents so that they can watch the tree grow alongside their child. Those interested in getting a certificate for the next planting season next fall can contact Monarch Research Station manager Augie Bergstrom at monarchresearch.augie@gmail.com.
“They would place an order for a tree, and it would be free, and they would be pick it up,” McLeod said.
Public Stewardship Award
In April, Monarch Research Project was named the winner of the Public Stewardship Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The award, presented Sunday, recognizes people, organizations or agencies that have significantly contributed to enhancing the environmental quality of the built or natural environment within the Central States Region — North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas — through ideas and actions.
McLeod said winning the award meant that Monarch Research Project’s approach is in line with native landscape architects across the country.
Brett Seelman, founder of Seelman Landscape Architecture of Cedar Rapids, nominated Monarch Research Project for the award. Monarch Research Project donated a majority of the plantings for restoring Brucemore’s landscape after the 2020 derecho.
“I am grateful for the local support to not only restore this community-treasured landscape post-derecho, but with the emphasis on (native) plantings, it aligns with my firm’s ethos that landscapes should not only be beautiful and benefit the community, but that they should also benefit and restore native ecosystems,” Seelman told The Gazette.
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