Criminal Defense Attorney inMonarch Mill, SC

The blossoming butterfly buffet of goldenrod, swamp sunflower, and sneezeweed along roadsides, across fields, and in gardens signals fall migration time for monarch butterflies. During spring and summer, monarch butterflies breed throughout the U.S. and southern Canada.

In fall, the eastern monarch population migrates to Mexico. Some travel a distance of 3,000 miles. These long distance daytime migrants consume a diet of sugar, amino acids and fatty acids obtained by nectaring on flowers. Monarchs gain weight as their body converts nectar to fat. The fat is stored in their abdomen and becomes the energy used to fuel the flight to Mexico. More importantly, fat is the only reserve food available to them during a five month fast from November to March while overwintering in the Oyamel forests, a mountain habitat of central Mexico. The fat reserve must also fuel the monarch’s spring migration north to Texas as they develop their reproductive organs, breed, lay eggs and then die. The eggs laid become the first of four generations to journey north annually.

Gardeners can provide a fall feast of high nectar plants for monarchs. It takes timing plants to bloom when monarchs pass through the Midlands. The following selection of native perennials bloom late summer through fall in South Carolina: •New England aster—Symphyotrichum novae-angliae •False boneset—Brickellia eupatorioides •New York Ironweed—Vernonia noveborancensis •Giant Ironweed—Vernonia gigantea •Blue mistflower—Conoclinium coelestinum •Obedient plant— Physostegia virginiana •Bitter Sneezeweed—Helenium amarum •Swamp sunflower— Helianthus augustifolius •Woodland sunflower— Helianthus divaricatus •Camphorweed—Pluchea odorata

Two non-native nectar plants visited by monarchs in the midlands are Lantana camara and Tithonia rotundifolia.

In fall, milkweed, the monarch’s larval host plant, is senescing. But native milkweed is a perennial and returns in spring for the life cycle of the monarch to continue. While the adult monarch is a generalist when it comes to nectar sources, the larvae are specialists requiring milkweed for metamorphosis.

Of the 75 species of milkweed native to North America, 20 are found in South Carolina. Four milkweed species sold as seed at everwilde.com and ernstseed.com are: •Asclepias tuberosa—Butterfly Milkweed •Asclepias incarnata— Swamp Milkweed •Asclepias syriaca—Common Milkweed •Asclepias verticillata— Whorled Milkweed

North American native plant societies are a reliable source for monarch nectar and host plants. The Midlands Chapter of the South Carolina Native Plant Society is hosting a native plant sale October 14 and 15 at Roberts Mills House. Since monarchs inhabit and migrate through the Midlands, home gardeners, K-16 schools, businesses, city and state road crews, public gardens, and nursing homes can add native nectar plants to the monarch butterfly’s diet for feasting, flying, and fasting.

References Hurwitz, Jane— Butterfly Gardening: The North American Butterfly Association Guide Tallamy, Doug— Nature’s Best Hope Xerces Society— 100 Plants to Feed the Monarch

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GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – The effort to keep alive the nearly extinct Monarch butterfly is getting a boost from the city of Greensboro.

Monarchs, those orange-and-black beauties that have iconic status across North America, are fighting a plummet into extinction that has seen the population decline by some 99% in the past half-century.

Monarchconservation.org reports the Monarch’s population actually increased in the 2021-22 season by 35%, as measured in Mexico where the eastern Monarch migrates during winter. In California, where the western Monarch spends its winters, the decline has been from about 1.2 million in the 1990s to fewer than 2000 in 2020, the Center for Biological Diversity reported.

The population count in Mexico was only 29,418 observed butterflies, which is about 1% of the number recorded in 1980.

But the eastern states account for about 99% of the population of those butterflies in North America, and the Monarch’s migration pattern brings them right through North Carolina. Some of them fly as much as 3,000 miles, biologists say.

Biologists said that in 2019 there were an estimated 300 million of them passing through on their return from Mexico, but in 2020 that figure was down to 141.5 million.

That’s where the city of Greensboro comes in. Mayor Nancy Vaughan on Thursday signed the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, joining a network of cities that have committed to help save the population of those butterflies.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department will plant more milkweed and native plants to create more habitats for pollinating insects, such as the Monarch, the city said in a release.

Monarchs help pollinate plants, and Monarch caterpillars lay their eggs exclusively on the leaves of the milkweed plants. There are six varietals of milkweed in the Eastern U.S. But the loss of these natural habitats to development and the expansion of herbicides have increased the decline of the species, experts say.

The city will expand its plantings in gardens at the Downtown Greenway, Greensboro Arboretum, Keeley Park Community Garden, and Price Park and educate the public about the need for native habitats. The city says the butterfly garden at the Arboretum, which is a joint project with Greensboro Beautiful, is a certified monarch waystation and includes interpretive signs to inform the public.

The Greensboro Science Center has its new Cole Family Butterfly House and Monarch Conservation Project that allows visitors to interact with the Monarchs and other species.

“The City of Greensboro and our community partners have already taken steps to increase natural pollinator habitat across our facilities,” Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department Director Nasha McCray said in the release announcing the new effort. “We look forward to working with our colleagues and our neighbors to expand this habitat throughout the city.”

Patrick Fitzgerald, senior director of community wildlife at the National Wildlife Federation, said in the release that such efforts by municipalities “play a pivotal role in advancing monarch butterfly conservation in urban and suburban areas.”

For the Anglophiles among us, how splendid was the recent coronation of King Charles III? All that royal pomp and circumstance calls to mind that the last time a King Charles sat on the English throne, the first permanent settlers of his namesake city were just sailing into Charleston Harbor.

Author Robert Rosen begins his classic "A Short History of Charleston" noting that never was a city more aptly named than Charles Town was for Charles II, who was born May 29, 1630, under the auspices of the planet Venus, goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and wealth — all characteristics that would shape Charleston from its very beginning.

By the time Charles was 14, the prince found himself entrenched in the battlefield alongside his father, Charles I, fighting Puritan rebels in the English Civil War. As King Charles realized his chances of victory were becoming elusive, he sought to protect his son and heir by sending him to the court of his French cousin, King Louis XIV.

As he feared, Charles I lost the war and was beheaded. The victorious Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell, dismantled the monarchy and began transforming England into a rather somber place. Meanwhile, Charles II flourished, embracing French fashions, culture and the company of enticing ladies of the court. He grew into a “precocious maturity, cynical, self-indulgent, skilled in the sort of moral evasions that make life comfortable even in adversity,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

As he entered adulthood, Charles traveled to many of the royal courts of Europe seeking support to regain his father’s throne. During these travels, he established romantic liaisons with a great number of women, both ennobled and obscure.

To make a long story short, Charles eventually found the support he needed to reestablish his claim to the throne through the support of eight wealthy Englishmen (whom we recall in Charleston as the Lords Proprietors), to whom he granted all the land from the Virginia border to St. Augustine, Fla., and as far west as the Pacific coast, wherever that might be. Thus, Carolina and its capital Charles Town were founded.

As his birth star had foretold, Charles II grew into a man who loved life, beauty, pleasure and luxury, and he embraced them all with little reserve. Upon his accession, Charles II set about ushering in England’s great Restoration Era — what Rosen calls “the merry old England of bawdy theaters, wenches, witty playwrights, horse racing, formal gardens and easy virtue.” In nearly all aspects, early Charlestonians established their new colony on the values and social customs of Charles’ reign.

His marriage to Catherine of Braganza did nothing to curb Charles’ voracious love life, one which he had cultivated well before his marriage and which he vigorously maintained thereafter. Though exactly how many women Charles had affairs with will undoubtedly forever remain an unsubstantiated footnote in history, documentation exists for a dozen liaisons. And though Queen Catherine never gave Charles any legitimate heirs, the lusty king acknowledged at least 12 children born to seven of his mistresses, granting them lands, titles and pensions, some even carrying the surname Fitzroy, or child of the king.

With no legitimate heirs, Charles’ throne passed to his brother James II and his progeny, meaning that no direct descendent of Charles II has ever ruled England. But one soon will — and not through the bloodline of his father, the newly crowned King Charles III.

Lady Diana Spencer, mother of heir apparent Prince William, was a direct descendent of two of Charles’ affairs: Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton and son by Barbara Villers, Duchess of Cleveland; and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and son with Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth — one day making Prince William the first direct descendent of King Charles II to sit on the English throne.

And in case that’s not enough scandal to drop into your next cocktail party conversation, bear in mind other distinguished descendants of Charles II include (gasp) Camilla, the new Queen of England; Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife and Duchess of York; and for Game of Thrones fans, Kit Harington, perhaps better known as Jon Snow, King in the North.

And so the legacy of Good King Charles II will live on in England, even as it does here in the city that was named in his honor.

UPSTATE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Greer has become the first Monarch City in South Carolina.

They announced it at the Center for the Arts Park. Greer is also a certified National Community Wildlife Habitat now.

According to the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, monarch butterflies’ population has been on the decline. So, Monarch City U.S.A. is partnering with cities all over the country to help do their part to save the struggling population.

Greer’s Camellia Garden Club Project Manager Kelly Long says a lot of work went into making this happen. They released butterflies at The Edward R. Driggers City of Greer Center for the Arts park to get the garden started. There is also a garden at the Kid’s Planet Playground.

“We’ve got 300 household businesses, churches, and schools that cared enough to help us. It took two years to get us to this point. And so, now, we’re nationally certified. And we’re excited about it. And we hope many, other communities will do the same,” Long said.

One way to help the butterflies is by planting milkweeds. That’s where they like to lay their eggs. There are milkweeds at Greer’s butterfly gardens. And Mayor Rick Danner says they have plans to expand.

“We’ve got one now at the park at City Hall. This is our second one. And we’ll be adding more,” said Danner.

Long says she raises butterflies herself. She hopes residents get involved as well.

“Any kind of wildlife, we want to encourage children and families to take care of so it’s around for generations to come,” Long said, “So, it’s important to make a place for wildlife on your property.”

The City of Clemson is working to be right behind them. Council member Catherine Watt says the issues are deeper than just butterflies. Like a cocoon, it’s time for a change.

“I think it’s no secret. We see it across the Upstate: the destruction of natural habitat in the way of development,” Watt said.

Becoming a Monarch City is one way to help. Plus, Watt says Clemson wants to become a safe home for birds, bees, and all wildlife. They’re going to educate residents and encourage them to plant milkweeds.

“This is a small step that we can start taking to preserve our green space, to give back, and to make sure that our communities are what we want them to be for our children and grandchildren,” said Watt.

Watt says Liz Vogt came up with the idea from a post on Facebook. Vogt partnered with Doyle Carr to bring this to the attention to the council. Clemson has had a few meetings to discuss plans. They are in the process of mapping places for the butterflies. They want to bulk purchase seeds through the city or a grant, but, either way, they’ll keep it low-cost.

Long says Greer is also working to be a home for birds, reptiles, and all wildlife. Watt says it doesn’t matter who’s first. It all helps the environment.

“The more, the merrier; this is not a competition. This is about protecting what we love about The Upstate,” said Watt, “And so, if I can get every municipality in South Carolina to do it, I would.”

You can request a free packet of native, milkweed seeds from the state’s Wildlife Federation here.

Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved.

SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties is offering local South Carolina homeowners and businesses a full suite of property cleaning, restoration, and construction services.

With a range of services that encompasses everything required for a property’s restoration and upkeep, SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties has emerged as a trusted leader in the region’s restoration industry. The company boasts a highly trained team of certified professionals who use the latest restoration technology and cleaning techniques to make short work of even the most challenging projects.

“We offer a 24-hour emergency service to help you immediately deal with problems that threaten your property’s integrity,” says the spokesperson for the company. “As our motto says, Faster to any size disaster™, we are ready to move out every day at any time.”

The company’s full range of services includes water damage, fire damage, mold remediation, storm/disaster, construction, commercial services, specialty cleaning, and general cleaning. It also offers additional services such as air duct/HVAC cleaning, biohazard/crime scene, carpet/upholstery, ceiling/floor/walls, document restoration, drapes/blinds, odor removal, roof tarping/board-up, and vandalism/graffiti cleanup.

SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties is locally owned and operated and attributes its success to the highly trained technicians who have grown up and live in the communities they serve which include Gaffney, Chester, Union, Blacksburg, Great Falls, Edgemoor, Jonesville, Buffalo, Chesnee, East Gaffney, Cherokee Falls, Monarch Mill, Carlisle, Lockhart, Fort Lawn, Richburg, Eureka Mill, Indian Land, Van Wyck, and Lowrys.

The company’s spokesperson explains, “As a local leader in the restoration services industry, we take pride in the fact that everyone on our team has a deep unbreakable bond with those we serve. When you call us out for an emergency, we don’t waste any time arriving on site because, at the end of the day, as fellow South Carolinians ourselves, we have the same commitment to you as we do to our friends, neighbors, and family. You just don’t get that level of responsive service and dedication to customer satisfaction from businesses these days. At SERVPRO, we insist on settling for nothing less.”

The company’s well-reviewed service is backed up by a long list of professional qualifications. These include certifications and licenses such as HST - Health and Safety Technician, AMRT - Applied Microbial Remediation Technician, OCT - Odor Control Technician, ASD - Applied Structural Drying Technician, OSHA - 10-hour General and/or Construction Industry Training Program, RRT - Carpet Repair & Reinstallation Technician, WRT - Water Damage Restoration Technician, UFT - Upholstery & Fabric Cleaning Technician, ECTP - Employee Certification Training Program, FSRT - Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Technician, CMT - Commercial Carpet Maintenance Technician, and RRRP - Lead-Based Paint Activities and Renovation.

SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties has received an overwhelmingly positive response from its customers which is evident in the perfect 5.0 rating on its Google Business Profile from over 20 reviews. Customers have repeatedly praised the Indian Land property damage restoration services company for its communicative and professional crew members, fair pricing, and excellent customer service.

A recent review says, “After receiving an astronomical quote from a competitor, the SERVPRO Indian Land team resolved all my issues with a cost-effective solution. They were on time, professional, and exceeded my expectations with the quality of their work. They will be my first call for any flood, fire, or mold issues in the future! I highly recommend.”

Another local customer writes, “Wonderful, friendly, knowledgeable, empathetic personnel. Leaders of teams are very up on what they are doing; what to do; how to do it; how to make the affected parties feel at ease and relaxed to know they are in such competent hands; and what to do next; and keep parties informed.”

Readers looking for property damage restoration in Indian Land can contact SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties at (803) 681-2188 24/7 to schedule the company's emergency property damage restoration services.

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For more information about SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties, contact the company here:

SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties Michael Pezant (803) 581-1570 office@servpro11309.com SERVPRO of Indian Land, Cherokee, Union, and Chester Counties 1057 Red Ventures Dr #145