A project 10 years in the planning has taken wing at Moraine State Park.

A Native Plant/Butterfly Trail was dedicated Sept. 6 at the north shore of the park. Natalie Price, chairwoman of the trail committee, hopes walkers will learn about the environment.

"People will walk and pass something absolutely beautiful and not even see it's there, but with the butterfly trail, I think if people recognize something beautiful, the less likely they'll be to destroy it," Mrs. Price said.

A biologist, she is the lab coordinator in the chemistry department of Butler County Community College.

The real purpose of creating the trail was to encourage butterfly growth on the path, which is actually a network of trails starting at McDanel's Launch. The committee incorporated native Pennsylvania plant growth along the way.

"You can see the native plants all year long, but only see the butterflies for a certain time," Mrs. Price said. "But I think it gets public interest more because they're called flying flowers.

"One of the other things that I think we're helping through this path are the frogs. We have a nice breeding frog population but people aren't as into it, so we didn't name it the frog trail."

The network of trails is the brainchild of members of the Moraine Preservation Fund and the Moraine McConnell's Mill Jennings Commission, also known as the 3MJC. They then were joined by the Butler County Master Gardeners group in placing native plants that would help draw butterflies and other beneficial insects, said Mrs. Price, the 3MJC secretary and the trail committee chairwoman for all three organizations.

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