The village of Romeoville now has over 100 certified monarch way stations in the community, providing a place for butterflies to rest, refuel and breed as they migrate to Mexico for the winter.

In 2025, Mayor John Noak set a goal to plant 100 of these gardens across the village. The community has surpassed that goal and now has 113 locations.

This gives Romeoville the second-highest number of reported monarch way stations in Illinois behind Chicago.

Way stations consist of native plants, specifically monarch-favorite milkweed. In the Romeoville area, this includes the common milkweed, swamp milkweed, butterfly milkweed and poke milkweed.

To help monarch butterflies and learn more about adding monarch waystations in Romeoville, visit monarchwatch.org.