Biography:
Sofia Aldinio is an Argentine documentary photographer and multimedia storyteller. She is currently based in Portland, Maine. Her work uses collaborative practices to tell stories about home, immigration, climate change, and preserving natural and...
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Rebekah Lowell tags and releases butterflies in Biddeford, Maine, that will migrate 3,000 miles to Central Mexico. For the last three years Rebecca has religiously searched for and collected monarch eggs and caterpillars from this field to increase their chance of survival. In 2021 she released 415 monarchs. In 2022, she released 245 monarchs. With the same effort, searching the field twice a day, Rebekah released 161 monarchs in 2023.
Rebekah Lowell searches for monarchs' butterfly eggs at the start of the season in Biddeford, Maine. Rebekah is a single mother, butterfly advocate, and a survivor of domestic abuse. Her life has been forever altered by this trauma. She shares, “The innocent child that once roamed the wildflower fields is gone. My heart, though, has found a way to be resilient, and though it bears scars, it is strong.
Mother and daughter, Kathy Pollard and Ann Pollard-Ranco from the Penobscot Tribe, teach a workshop to non-indigenous women about traditional indigenous ecological knowledge, and climate change mitigation strategies, Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The pair specializes in restoration ecology projects with a focus on indigenous sustainability practices. The Penobscot tribe lost access to their native land through colonization, so restoring native habitat has been a welcome opportunity to reconnect with the original Penobscot homeland.
Butterfly milkweed is contained in a net to prevent caterpillars from catching a disease, at the Mahoosuc Land Trust during Monarch Festival in Bethel, Maine.
Ariah Lowell collects her hair with one of her mother’s bandanas while she takes her service dog for a walk. Ariah homeschools and has learned how to collect monarchs eggs and caterpillars from her mother’s passion for butterflies and nature advocacy for her entire life, Biddeford, Maine.
Alicia Miller holds a container with dead butterflies at the Botanical gardens, Booth Bay, Maine in September 2023. Every year butterflies are ordered from a farm in Pennsylvania that will live in the Butterfly garden. Once they die they are placed in the freezer to prevent diseases from being transmitted. These butterflies are used to engage the public about their journey and educate about their immediate need for habitat restoration.
Melissa Cullina, Director of Plant Science & Collections for Maine Botanical Gardens, lays out milkweed originally collected from the 1800's at the Herbarium in Botanical gardens, Booth Bay, Maine. The Botanical gardens started a seed collecting program in 2023 to create climate resilience. Next year they intend to collect about 14 native milkweed seeds from around the northeast.
Butterfly milkweed seed pods are collected from Jeremiah garden, to clean and store the seeds. This type of Milkweed has been extirpated from Marine ecosystems, and many residents are now growing them in their gardens. South Portland United States
Rebekah Lowell holds a butterfly habitat cage terrarium, Biddeford, Maine.
Fall can be cold in Maine, and A monarch's flight muscles must be 55°F (13°C) before the butterfly can fly. The butterflies will then commence the 3,000 mile journey to Michoacan, Mexico where they will mate, then die and start the cycle again.