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Conservation efforts take center stage at Norfolk's Butterfly Festival

The goal is to encourage residents to do their part to protect and help the local butterfly and moth populations.

NORFOLK, Va. — Sunny weather is the perfect backdrop for Norfolk's Butterfly Festival.

Norfolk Botanical Garden teamed up with the Butterfly Society of Virginia for the sixth annual event on Saturday.

The goal is to encourage residents to do their part to protect and help the local butterfly and moth populations – including declining species like the monarch butterfly.

“It allows people to see the biodiversity especially for a lot of the local insects that you otherwise wouldn’t see,” said Maurice Cullen of the Butterfly Society of Virginia.

“For people that are looking for plants to do a garden, there’s education on that. There are some classes on caterpillar care.”

Visitors got all dressed up and got an up-close look at the caterpillar life cycle in the butterfly house and enjoyed gardening and pollination demonstrations.

According to a press release issued by Norfolk Botanic Gardens, one focus of Saturday's event is its "Mission Monarch: Project Milkweed" initiative, which focuses on the life and issues of the monarch butterfly population.

The garden has milkweed plants for sale which are the only food source for the monarch butterfly.

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