Umpqua Valley’s cultural and natural history will be celebrated at the 18th annual Blooms & Butterflies Festival June 21 at the Elkton Community Education Center (ECEC) in Elkton. About an hour’s drive from the Eugene-Springfield area, Blooms & Butterflies is a family-friendly ECEC fundraiser with a 5K Butterfly Run/Walk, butterfly costume contests and ample opportunity to learn about the life cycle of native butterflies, plants and flowers. ECEC is located near historic Fort Umpqua, first established in the 1830s by the Hudson Bay Trading Company. So, along with food, music, crafts booths and more, Blooms & Blossoms visitors can tour Fort Umpqua guided by “Mountain Men,” Elkton area residents who recreate what life was like for those early settlers, with attention paid to the Native populations in the area. There’s also a drop-in yoga cool down, and Thundering Water Recreation on the “WOWtruck,” an interactive 18-wheeler transformed into an activity and wellness educational center for all ages. Marie Montgomery is the ECEC co-executive director, and she says one focus at this year’s event will be butterfly way-stations, and what people need to get them started on their property to support migrating monarch butterfly populations. Talks and demonstrations will also address the importance of pollinator gardens, she adds. ECEC, Montgomery says, is “one of the only native plant nurseries in Oregon,” and at this time of year, there are as many as 500 native painted lady caterpillars growing on site. She says they’re fun to see at any stage, and “they’ll be doubling and tripling in size” in the coming weeks.

The Blooms & Butterflies festival is 8 am to 4 pm Saturday, June 21, at the Elkton Community Education Center, 15850 State Highway 38 West, Elkton. For more information and a complete schedule of events, go to ElktonButterflies.com.