Dingtu Stream Butterfly Village Introduction
Located at the intersection of Shuishang Township and Taibao City in Chiayi County, Tuguo Village consists of two communities: Ding Tuguo and Xia Tuguo. It is a typical rural area experiencing population decline, home only to elderly residents and children. The living environment has been deteriorating, and at one point, the county government proposed to set up a landfill here, which sparked strong protests from the villagers and awakened their environmental awareness. In recent years, the government has strongly promoted community development, coupled with the awakening of local residents, leading to the initiation of community building in Ding Tuguo in 1998. Efforts were made to revitalize the village environment, such as improving drainage ditches, planting torch ginger, and transforming the originally dirty and overgrown drainage ditches into clean streams bearing ecological traces. Additionally, cotton trees were planted to beautify the area. The unexpected presence of the Common Crow butterfly was a result of the cotton trees attracting butterflies by secreting sweet nectar as food. As a result, villagers decided to plant large quantities of cotton trees to restore the butterfly population. With media coverage, the village earned the nickname "Butterfly Village." In 1999, a peak year for butterflies, events like "Butterflies Come to My Home" and the "Rapeseed Festival" were organized, attracting visitors from over 200 communities, successfully raising the profile of Ding Tuguo as a butterfly village. However, in recent years, butterflies have stopped fluttering in the village due to the invasion of parasitic wasps, which disrupt the butterfly ecosystem. These wasps lay their eggs inside butterfly chrysalises, slowly consuming the caterpillars, resulting in the emergence of bees instead of butterflies. Although this is regrettable, the aging rural image has been completely transformed, giving it a new vibrancy and achieving the goal of environmental beautification. In 2006, the community received sponsorship from the Hsin Yi Real Estate Community and grants from the Forestry Bureau for community forestry projects. They focused on creating an ecological education park along the 1.8 kilometers of Taiwan Sugar Corporation's railway route connecting Ding Tuguo and Xia Tuguo communities, linking them with the "Butterfly Love Trail" around the village. They also worked on "The Spirit of Butterflies" logo, enhancing the multifunctional and multicultural aspects of the community for ecological education and recreational activities, aiming to provide a better holiday leisure destination for the public.
