Celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration and bring attention to the species’ declining numbers. Gorges State Park lies along the monarch’s migratory route. The butterflies can be seen in late September each year flying over the park’s visitor center on their way south to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, where they overwinter until early spring.

Join Patchwork Meadows in Black Mountain for peak monarch migration viewings. 

Join Patchwork Meadows in Black Mountain for peak monarch migration viewings. 

Live music, education activities celebrating our pollinators, native plants, and much more!

Join us at The North Carolina Arboretum on Sept 19th for a day dedicated to the Monarch Butterfly! Each fall the last of the year’s monarchs pass through Western North Carolina during their winter migration to Mexico, so what better time to celebrate!? From 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., you can enjoy a variety of activities, including a mini-live monarch tagging and release demonstration, crafts and educational exhibitors, a monarch-focused story walk.

Shop with some of the best local native plant growers in the area during the prime season for planting! Plus fabulous nature-inspired artists and makers, as well as coffee and treats on site. Plus kids activities, native plant focused classes, and a meet & greet session with landscapers who work primarily with natives.

The Asheville Botanical Garden will host numerous local plant vendors to offer a wide variety of native trees, shrubs, and flowers for fall planting. Signs will direct customers to the garden’s parking lot and to the designated overflow parking area at UNCA. Overflow parking lot is located at UNCA at 118 W.T. Weaver Blvd

Learn about and craft your own Monarch Butterfly life cycle, and color your own butterfly to take part in the Symbolic Monarch Migration to Mexico on Saturday, September 12 at the Hendersonville Farmers Market.

This class will cover everything from milkweed seed collection and stratification to raising monarchs responsibly, reporting monarch sightings, and tagging monarchs.

Join the Nature Center for the Great Southeast Pollinator Census on Saturday, August 22, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. This event is included with general admission and celebrates the pollinators that keep our ecosystems thriving. Explore educational tables, enjoy hands-on activities for all ages, and discover how you can help protect bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

In this free lunch-time class, join the community science volunteers that lead this in-depth project at the North Carolina Arboretum supervised by the Adult Education department. These dedicated volunteers observe the growth of milkweeds on the Arboretum property and count Monarch eggs, caterpillars, pupa, and adults that use these plants. This project has been operating for a few years and the volunteers will speak on their own experiences and compare data from 2026 and past years of surveys. Bring your own lunch, no food will be provided.

This class provides pointers on defining what is truly a pest and when and how to manage it with the least harm to pollinators. SPOILER ALERT: Insects sometimes viewed as pests, like wasps, are among the best pest managers, and diversity is a gardener’s best friend! 

Want to help pollinators? Join the nearly 300 dedicated pollinator guardians in our community and let your neighbors know the fabulous fun you are up to with Native Pollinator Garden Certification. From patio pot to acreage, Stacia Payne of Bee City-Asheville will walk you through the process of certifying your pollinator garden – including native plant lists for Western North Carolina, how each requirement benefits our local pollinators, and the critical basics of pollinator-friendly gardening.

Did you know there are more than 177,500 different lepidoptera? This class explores the major butterfly and moth groups and their importance in our ecosystems.

Join Reems Creek Nursery for a day of education, music, photo ops, good food, and more! Pollinator habitat workshop starts at 10:00.

Pack up the kiddos and visit the Bee City USA - Asheville booth to learn more about the amazing pollinators that make our food possible. We’ll have a Scavenger Hunt for kids (and kids at heart) to see how many pollinator-dependent foods they can spot at the market.

You don’t have to travel to other continents to find amazing creatures— they could be right in your backyard! They are just small. This class is to help you learn to observe and identify pollinators in your garden or wherever plants are blooming.

You don’t have to travel to other continents to find amazing creatures— they could be right in your backyard! They are just small. This class is to help you learn to observe and identify pollinators in your garden or wherever plants are blooming.

Learn about pollinator conservation on a family-friendly no-drop group ride along the Asheville Butterfly Trail. The Trail took flight in the summer of 2024, just in time for Hurricane Helene to test its wings! Five Trail stations have been installed throughout Buncombe County with at least five more planned. At each of the three stations we visit, we will stop to learn about the butterfly on display and have the opportunity to take photos with the giant wings.

Our plants in the Blue Ridge are pollinated by more insects than just Honey Bees. In this course, we will look at common and some less obvious pollinators of the region and discuss their life cycles, the benefits they provide the world, and how to attract them. We will also go outside to look for pollinators doing their work around the Arboretum grounds.

What? A Pollinator Safari at a golf course? That’s right, you don’t have to go all the way to Africa to see exotic animals! Join Florrie Funk to get to know as many pollinators as possible in the pollinator garden during the Golf Course’s annual Audubon International Bioblitz. This event is one of the ways the Course is meeting its commitment to the Wildlife/Habitat Management and Education/Outreach requirements for its Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Certification.

Would you like to help with pollinator conservation by surveying for bumble bees? Bumble bees are an important indicator of overall pollinator health. This class will provide an overview of the Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas program, present the insightful data gathered by volunteers over its first two years, and train participants on the survey techniques used so you can volunteer to gather bumble bee diversity and abundance data in 2026.

Tiny, inconspicuous and under-appreciated species hold our world together. Sharon Selvaggio with the Xerces Society will discuss why pesticides in homes, gardens, agriculture and natural areas are a leading threat to bees, butterflies, and other insects. But there is much to be hopeful about! She’ll also share inspiring examples and practical resources for those ready to take action in their gardens, neighborhoods, towns, campuses, and states.