Wanted to take a brief moment to look back at 2023. Our visitation and revenue grew by about 20-30% respectively. Definitely a step in the right direction. The year 2023 will officially go in the books as the first year we made a profit!

We had another outstanding group of interns with Bre Jarvis and Leah Conway. We have been very blessed with the interns we have had over the years and this year continued the tradition. In February we will start shopping for next year’s group of interns.

2023 was our first year to participate with the Hocking Hills Butterfly Trail. Bre is posing with our Eastern Comma wings above. The trail has been very popular, especially with tourists to the area. The wings are located near our stage and can be engaged without having to pay admission.

Our butterfly population remained stable, at a level about 300% higher than our baseline population of 2015. That means our habitat improvement efforts have led to the quadrupling of our butterfly population, and that the population is staying steady. This year we improved about one-fourth of an acre of old field into prairie. In 2025 that section should be spectacular.

We continued contributing in the community. We achieved “gold star” status with our Adopt-A-Highway clean-up work on State Route 678. We also donated 150 bottles of butterfly bait to Logan in Bloom to give away at the America in Bloom conference. In 2024, Logan will be hosting the AIB conference! We also gave talks to the Hocking College and Ohio University Wildlife Clubs, encouraging the next generation to continue our work of trying to improve life for pollinators. One member of the OU Wildlife Club, Madachi Roberts was also our Environmental Action Scholarship winner for 2023. We award the scholarship to a Logan High School graduating senior who will be moving on to study an environmental/natural resources field.

This year was a phenomenal year for moths, as we documented well over 600 species at our weekly Mothing Zone events. Our previous best year had been about 530 species. In addition we had two moths that were brand new to Ohio, and as of this writing, lack a name or scientific description. We are quickly becoming known as the mothing hotspot for the state of Ohio.

We made several presentations throughout the state and the region, including a three-day trip to Maryland where we spoke to Boys and Girls Club youth, Master Gardeners, and a local garden club. We also did talks at the Pawpaw Festival, to Licking and Pickaway County Parks, and several other groups. Perhaps the talk that was most special was to the Hocking County Historical Society in Logan, Ohio, where we spoke on the re-purposing of the Butterfly Ridge property, which has been in Mr. Chris’ family since 1863.

Finally, in January we started the non-profit corporation the Polygonia Foundation. TPF will take over much of Butterfly Ridge’s education and conservation outreach, including our seed sharing program and moth lighting events, both on- and off-site. It will also participate in some community outreach programs that will be shared in the 2024 Preview post.

We thank all of you who visited Butterfly Ridge in 2023 or participated in one of our off-site programs. Hopefully you will continue to be one of our supporters into 2024, possibly playing an even larger role.