For Keith De Cesare, inspiration struck after witnessing the parks department ripping out native milkweed, the exclusive host plant and habitat for monarch butterflies. He wanted to create a protected space for these insects to call home. “You plant the milkweed and they’ll come,” De Cesare explained. He has started an adopt-a-butterfly program to allow parents and children to engage with his butterfly rescue efforts The Church of the Good Shepherd donated their corner, allowing De Cesare to create the Inwood Butterfly Sanctuary on a busy neighborhood corner, planting pollinating flowers and, yes, milkweed. “Before you know it we were inundated with monarch butterflies and the eggs,” De Cesare remembered.
Three years into the project, De Cesare is still busy searching for new eggs and creating solutions for keeping the caterpillars and chrysalides safe while working tirelessly to educate the community. Through this one little patch of beauty, De Cesare believes more than a hundred butterflies will hatch this year. “This isn’t just a frivolous project of raising butterflies and how wonderful that is. It’s all that, but it’s really more about truly saving the butterflies from extinction,” De Cesare said.
As more and more habitats are destroyed, De Cesare hopes he can help other New Yorkers build way stations in their communities and spread even more awareness to the monarch cause. What started as a personal interest and a way to teach his own kids, has quickly developed into a neighborhood hot spot. “It became a gathering place for the neighborhood," De Cesare said. "People are stopping by everyday to see the caterpillars. They’re counting them. They’re waiting for them to be released."
What You Need To Know:
Through the help of the a donation, De Cesare was able to create a butterfly sanctuary on a corner lot in Inwood
He's aware of how incredible the monarch butterfly is and is doing everything he can to keep them from extinction
De Cesare would love to create similar gardens across the city
De Cesare also created an adopt-a-butterfly program, encouraging parents and children to take home a caterpillar and watch it transform. “By engaging the imagination and the interest of the children, at a young age, we’re teaching them to be stewards of the environment, to be caretakers and to be responsible,” De Cesare said.
For creating his own kind of butterfly effect, Keith De Cesare, is our New Yorker of the Week.
