Butterflyway - North Frontenac

Jeff Green | Jun 05, 2024

When Julie and Colin Drake took over Pleasantview Lodge on Brule Lake, north of Plevna, they loved the location, the lake, everything about the business, but they wanted to make some changes.

One of them was to change the way the grounds where the 5 housekeeping summer cottages were located.

“We noticed that things were out of whack,” said Julia, “there was a history of pesticide use on the grounds and around the buildings to keep bugs and for a clean look to the property. And Round Up was used on all of the weeds, but to us they weren't all weeds, they were pollinators.”

So, they ceased all herbicide and pesticide use and began planting native plants around the property. The plants they began introducing and cultivating, include: black eyed susans, jo pye weed, fireweed, hairy beard tongue, prairie smoke, milkweed, anemone, fleabane, woodland strawberries and wild raspberries. Some of the plants were sourced at Native Themes Native Plant Nursery in Frankford, and others came from the roadsides around North Frontenac.

A few years later, the grounds around the lodge look different, greener and maybe messier in some ways, but more alive with birds, animals, insects, ... and butterflies.

It was not a stretch, therefore, for Colin and Julia to take on a butterfly ranger role and begin working to establish a Butterflyway in North Frontenac.

The Ranger and Butterlfyway programs are sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation.

“The goal of the Butterflyway Project is to establish habitat for local bees and butterflies in communities throughout Canada. Each Ranger is tasked with organizing a small local team to help them plant at least a dozen pollinator patches,” is how the project is described on the foundation website.

It is turning out the be relatively easy to accomplish that in North Frontenac.

“I brought the idea to my exercise class and then put up a Facebook group and posted to the North Frontenac Community page last night,” she said on Monday of this week. We have about 33 people now, most of the already have native plants in their gardens, and are open to planting more.”

One of the major goals of the Butterflyway project is to provide information and resources to those who join, and Julia is already doing that by posting resources for the benefit of the North Frontenac Facebook group, including information about how to attract butterflies and dragonflies, and medicinal uses of native plants.

Another part of the project is to establish two community gardens, one at Clarendon Central Public School and one a the Clar-Mill Hall in Plevna.

Julia Drake applied to the township for a $1,000 community grant for the Clar-Mill Hall garden, which was successful, and will be working with staff to determine where the garden will be located, and will do plantings based on the conditions in the specific location.

Another garden is planned for Clarendon Central Public School in Plevna.

“We are hoping to get the students involved at the school, and have approached school staff already, and they have been very supportive. One of beautiful things about a native-plant gardens is the plants are well adapted to local conditions, and need very little maintenance, and not much water at all,” she said.

Information about the North Frontenac Butterflyway is available at nfbutterflyway on Facebook, or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by searching Buttterfly Way Project on any search engine.