All of her life, Ba Rea has been passionate about the natural world — enjoying, investigating, learning and sharing what she discovers. Ba has researched, drawn, photographed, written and designed publications about many different plants, animals and natural phenomena. She has worked with a wide variety of organizations, including Indian Creek Watershed Association, Kenai Fjords National Park, Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, Maine Audubon, Audubon Society of New Hampshire, Monarchs in the Classroom, Lifestrands, Ridge2000, Wings of Wonder, ASSET, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Frick Environmental Center, the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, and the Anita Purves Nature Center in Urbana, Illinois. Though perhaps Ba’s favorite creatures are monarch butterflies, praying mantids, toads, American eels, puffins, and whales are all close contenders!
Ba has been raising and releasing monarchs since1970. She introduced monarchs to school children and teachers from1986 until 2012. Now retired, she welcomes a couple monarchs from the milkweed in her yard into her home each summer and happily talks monarchs and many other natural phenomena with anyone interested.
Ba's first monarch related book, Milkweed, Monarchs and More, A Field Guide to the Invertebrate Community in the Milkweed Patch, created with Karen Oberhauser and Michael Quinn was published in 2003. Ba spent two summers crawling through milkweed patches, observing, studying, photographing, designing and writing this field guide with the expertise and editorial guidance of Dr. Oberhauser and help from Mike Quinn and his broad entomological background and knowledge of scientists working in research of many species of invertebrates. The images for the book came from many sources, both professional and enthusiastic amateurs. It is a classic field guide created as a guide for volunteers in Monarch Lab's Monarch Larva Monitoring Program and designed to help students, citizen scientists and other milkweed patch enthusiasts in their exploration of the fascinating milkweed community. In 2011 Ba produced and published second editions of Milkweed, Monarchs and More with many updates in two sizes: Milkweed Monarchs and More Updated Second Edition, Field Version in the original pocket size and The Enlarged and Updated Second Edition of Milkweed Monarchs and More which is larger and easier for classroom use with larger print and images.
In her children’s book Monarch Come Play with Me, written and illustrated by Ba Rea, she uses large, detailed illustrations and the inquiries of a young girl to present a monarch caterpillar’s metamorphosis from egg through caterpillar and chrysalis to butterfly for a pre-k through 3rd grade audience. An informational text at the end of the book introduces readers to monarch science through Fred and Norah Urquhart’s discovery—with the help of many citizen scientists—of the monarchs’ overwintering sites in Mexico.
Created by Ba Rea to accompany her annual monarch teachers’ workshops, Learning From Monarchs is intended as a starting point for teachers interested in using monarchs in their classrooms. It introduces concepts and information that are useful in designing monarch lessons.
