Monarch butterfly sculptures on Fredericton bridge send environmental message

Hope Edmond · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 13, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Thirty delicately carved monarch butterflies greet walkers and cyclists who transverse Fredericton's Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge, which spans the Saint John River.

Each brightly painted woody butterfly has a helping span of astir 2 feet, and has been handmade by creator Gary Crosby. 

The butterflies are 1 of Fredericton's impermanent nationalist creation installations. This flutter of monarchs is portion of a task Crosby calls A Splash of Colour. 

"It could execute each the aims I wanted to execute with nationalist art," Crosby said. "But astatine the aforesaid clip person a connection — an biology message."

WATCH | 'Whimsical' nationalist creation installation to greet radical each summer: 

Angela Watson, taste improvement serviceman for the City of Fredericton, said the nationalist creation enactment committee was "enchanted" with Crosby's project. 

"I deliberation visually it's conscionable a lovely, whimsical portion that we knew radical would bask connected the bridge," Watson said. 

"This monarch butterfly show volition besides supply an accidental to amended the nationalist astir the situation and the value of plants and butterflies."

Retired seasoned inspired by clip successful Germany, Rwanda

Crosby came up with the thought astir a twelvemonth agone but says his involvement successful sculpture and wood carving was inspired by his clip successful the military.

He spent 4 years successful Germany's Black Forest, an country that is known for its iconic cuckoo clocks.

"Everything's painted, everything's carved, sculpted. There's creation everyplace and it was 4 years of conscionable being wholly buried successful art," helium said. 

A peacekeeping circuit successful Rwanda is wherever Crosby realized helium could beryllium a sculptor oregon carver. He was clearing retired a assemblage and came crossed a schoolroom wherever radical had been learning woodcarving. The teacher had filled the country with his work.

"That's however helium taught carving to each his students, due to the fact that they could spot each portion arsenic it was being cut," Crosby said. "I looked astatine that and thought, 'I deliberation I could bash that.'"

It was astatine that infinitesimal that Crosby decided to instrumentality up woodcarving.

Monarch butterflies endangered successful N.B.

On the walking bridge, cyclists, runners and families retired for a locomotion tin beryllium seen stopping to look up astatine the butterflies.

And portion galore radical successful Fredericton tin number connected seeing Crosby's installation, seeing a existent monarch is overmuch little likely. 

Ryan Godfrey from World Wildlife Fund Canada says determination has been a 90 per cent alteration successful the fig of monarch butterflies recovered successful Mexico implicit the past 30 years. 

The monarch is 1 of the fewer butterflies that migrate from confederate Canada to Mexico each year. Godfrey says this biologic improvement makes them susceptible to utmost upwind events that are becoming much communal owed to clime change. 

"Fewer monarchs are arriving backmost to their overwintering grounds and erstwhile they do, they're truly stressed out. A batch of them are truly beaten up, they mightiness person holes successful their wings oregon they mightiness beryllium a batch smaller."

Monarch butterflies were listed arsenic endangered successful New Brunswick and each different state but Newfoundland and Labrador connected the taxon astatine hazard registry successful 2023. 

"It's an indicator of a larger systemic occupation successful the ecology," Godfrey said. "What we mightiness not beryllium noticing is, hundreds of different taxon of insects that are besides successful diminution and that are collectively a truly important portion of the nutrient web."

According to Godfrey, the diminution successful monarch populations tin beryllium mostly attributed to situation loss, pesticides and clime change. He says planting "thousands of milkweeds," a works that monarch caterpillars provender on, is the champion mode radical tin help.

"I truly bash judge that the monarch colonisation would respond rapidly to that," helium said. "We could instrumentality the scenery to a situation level that's akin to however it was hundreds of years ago."

Crosby, who spends a batch of clip successful his plot with his wife, hopes his task volition animate radical to larn much astir monarchs and to works immoderate milkweed successful their ain yards.

He already has plans for his installation, which volition beryllium connected the span until October.

Crosby hopes to show his flutter of butterflies successful cities astir the province, and is readying to adhd different butterfly taxon to the project.