Leader: Ma. Estela Romero Vázquez Location: Woodend Nature Sanctuary Ma. Estela Romero Vázquez is a fifth generation of Angangueo, Michoacán, México, a town adjacent to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve World Heritage site known for its overwintering concentration of the Eastern population of monarch butterflies. For one night only, Estela will be visiting the Washington, D.C. area and sharing her knowledge and passion with Nature Forward’s audience. In this talk, Estela will convey how ancestral indígena connected with the annual cycles of Monarch’s arrival and overwintering in local forests, and how the scientific research of the last four decades makes clear the wonderful and vital way in which Monarchs impacted their lives. She will share about education and conservation actions happening in Angangueo to support monarchs’ habitat and to raise the next generation as intuitive guardians of the Monarchs’ Oyamel forests. As a writer, storyteller, and passionate educator, Estela hopes each person comes away with wonder, gratitude, and increased awareness about how to protect these amazing butterflies.