Carla Hilgenberg enjoys teaching about monarchs.
By Rich Wicks | Panora Times, May 2025
Carla Hilgenberg of rural Jamaica is a lifelong learner and teacher. Although she has retired from employment as a teacher, she has a continuing passion for a cause that she learned about decades ago.
Hilgenberg said the natural world is something she grew up enjoying.
Monarchs fill the air at their wintering grounds in Mexico.
“My dad was someone who really enjoyed nature. He’d be out here in the timber all the time,” Hilgenberg said. “Then, when I became a teacher, it was fun to see how open the kids’ minds are. So I helped teach them about nature.”
In recent years, media attention has increased on the plight of monarch butterflies. The species has a unique migration in which the monarchs from all around the United States and Canada fly south for the winter and then back north in the spring. No single generation of monarchs makes the entire trip. Instead, the monarchs achieve their travel through a type of “relay” in which individual monarchs make a portion of the trip, and then their offspring complete the next portion. The late-fall generation of monarchs lives the longest, allowing them to migrate all the way to Mexico and then a portion of the way back north in the spring.
Hilgenberg recalled how she first became fascinated with monarchs.
“Years ago, back when I was teaching, a good friend brought to my classroom a 5-gallon bucket of milkweed with monarch caterpillars on it,” Hilgenberg said. “From that point on, I wanted to know more.”
One of the things Hilgenberg learned was how monarchs’ unique pattern first became known.
“Fred Urquhart is the man that started it. As a little boy, he was really curious about the natural world, and he was wondering where the monarch butterflies went over the winter,” Hilgenberg said. “Along with his wife, Norah, they figured out a little tagging system. But they really weren’t getting anywhere, so in the 1950s they started asking for volunteers, and then somebody down in Mexico told them that the monarchs were there in winter.”
Monarchs obtain water and minerals from a drying mud puddle.
Hilgenberg joined the Monarch Watch organization (www.monarchwatch.org) and learned about the value in tagging monarchs so their migration can be documented.
“I started in 1997, but I know people that have been doing it a lot longer than me,” Hilgenberg said. “I joined the group — the National Federation of Wildlife — in 2005, and I went down to Mexico and toured the area where the monarchs spend the winter.”
Hilgenberg said the trip to Mexico gave her a lifetime of memories along with photos of the amazing butterflies that have captured her attention.
Since 1997, Hilgenberg incorporated monarchs into her classroom to help students learn about the species.
“This gave the kids in my classes a chance to be scientists,” she said.
Hilgenberg shared facts she has learned along with her students.
“They’ll get on the wind currents, and they can go up to 60 miles a day. They’re the only butterflies that migrate like ducks do. And if they’re in Canada, that’s up to 3,000 miles,” Hilgenberg said. “We’re on a flyway here in Iowa, as the monarchs come through here on the way north and south.”
Educational materials tell of the monarch life cycle.
Hilgenberg’s fascination with monarchs didn’t stop when she retired. She has tagged 1,745 monarchs, and 13 of those have been found and documented at the wintering grounds in Mexico.
Hilgenberg noted that monarch populations have declined sharply in recent decades due to habitat loss.
“The female can lay up to 300 to 500 eggs. They only lay their eggs on one type of plant — milkweed,” she said. “Since the 1990s, they’ve really declined.”
Because of that decline, Hilgenberg continues to spread education about the butterflies and how to do something about the situation. She continues to provide education to groups interested in booking her for a presentation, and she has her materials ready to go.
“I’m proud that I can speak on behalf of monarchs, and I’m free,” Hilgenberg said.
“I want people to realize they can make a difference. I’d like people to be more aware of insecticides they might use. I’m very much of an environmentalist.”
Hilgenberg welcomes anyone to contact her at 563-212-0945 for information, to schedule a presentation, or, in the fall, regarding tagging monarchs before their migration.
“If you plant flowers, that helps all butterflies. If you plant milkweed, that helps monarchs. Just make a difference however you can,” she said. “All those little things add up.”