May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun And find your shoulder to light on, To bring you luck & happiness Today, tomorrow and beyond.� after months of historic rain, Topanga celebrates a vibrant spring with rolling verdant hills ablaze with glorious wildflowers, a fitting stage for the Fourth Annual Topanga Butterfly Day event on Sunday, May 7, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the historic Mountain Mermaid, a butterfly oasis with a rich history. Butterfly Day continues to grow as an event celebrating the beauty and importance of pollinators to our natural world. Most importantly, this is an exciting opportunity to connect, learn, and engage in supporting butterflies, bees, birds and other vital pollinators. From its modest start in 2018, Butterfly Day has become a community-wide celebration, a day-long event featuring regional environmental partners, live music, food and drink, and the ever-popular live butterfly house and beehive. Booths cluster around the swimming pool with pollinator-themed tiles by Topanga Art Tile, jewelry, and clothing for sale, face painting and activities for children. In this time of climate change, it is critical that we come together as communities to steward the creatures that sustain and enrich the environment and our lives. Pollinators enable the growth of much of our food supply and their native habitat plants stabilize our hillsides, cleanse our water, and even purify the air we breathe. The impact, beauty, and diversity of pollinators—butterflies and bees, yes, but also moths, wasps, hummingbirds, bats and even lizards—continue to amaze children and adults alike as we learn more about the critical roles they play. To engage the community in learning and activism on behalf of pollinators, we have invited key regional environmental groups. Local agencies include Greener Empowerment Foundation and Sassafras Shoppe & Nursery that collaborate on the Topanga Pollinator Stewardship program that has established pollinator gardens in Topanga and neighboring Santa Monica Mountain and valley communities, at schools, businesses and public and private properties with funding from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and former Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. We also welcome Tree People, California Native Plant Society, Topanga State Park Docents, and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, agencies committed to the conservation of native lands, native plants and essential habitat areas. The Mermaid’s Native Plant Nursery, organized by Sergio Jimenez and his family, will be selling native pollinator plants so event participants can start their own gardens. Malibu Monarch Project and Baby Rhino Rescue will share about the endangered monarch butterfly and rhino conservation efforts; Topanga Animal Rescue staff will talk about their wildlife rescue work in the region; Poison Free Malibu has advocated for years the importance of eliminating pesticides; and Full Circle Compost will demonstrate how to make a home composting system that can reduce your carbon footprint while enriching the soil. As government liaisons, the Topanga Town Council and Topanga Creek Watershed Committee will demonstrate their year-round advocacy on behalf of environmental conservation in Topanga and the Santa Monica Mountains.