ORU Partners With City for Butterflies

Tulsa, OK – Oral Roberts University was excited to be part of a City of Tulsa news conference September 30, 2016, to announce the construction of a new monarch waystation near the university campus.

ORU is partnering with the city, University Village, Grogg’s Green Barn, LandPlan Consultants Inc., Riverfield Country Day School, Sustainable Tulsa, the Tulsa Zoo and Walmart to bring the waystation to 85th and South Lewis.

Monarch waystations serve as stopping places for the butterflies to receive necessary resources, such as milkweed and nectar. That helps the monarch sustain its migration to and from Mexico each year.

The city decided to put in the waystation after University Village ask the city to put in a sidewalk for all the people who enjoy walking to nearby shopping centers. The city decided this was also an opportunity to beautify the area and help the monarch butterfly.

Biology Teacher, John Korstad, Ph.D and students, Lindsay Jones and Ibanga Etuk, represented ORU at the news conference. Korstad says he looks at his job as a biologist and ecologist as a way of “equipping students like Lindsay and Ibanga and future students to do good things.” He said what better way to put in a sidewalk, beautify it and also put in the sound science. In November, ORU students will help build the waystation.

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