From Environment America (https://environmentamerica.org/):
Editor’s Note: I plant for pollinators, including milkweed for monarchs. Last year I had a number who laid eggs and hatched out. I’ve seen none this year.
Monarch butterflies are in crisis.
Toward the end of 2018, the nonprofit group Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation conducted their annual census of western monarchs wintering in California and found that the western monarch population had declined sharply since last year.
Sites that were home to 148,000 wintering monarchs in 2017 were down to an estimated 20,456 in 2018.1
This is devastating news for a population that has already declined 97 percent since the 1980s.2
Will you join us in urging your state to grow monarch-friendly plants on public lands at https://environmentamerica.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=30795?
What’s driving the monarchs to extinction? And what can we do about it?
Climate change and herbicide use have decimated milkweed and nectar plants that monarchs rely on. Milkweed is critical for monarchs’ survival: It’s where they lay their eggs, and it’s the only food that monarch caterpillars eat. But other nectar plants are just as important: Later in their life cycles, monarchs need plants like goldenrod, ironweed and dozens more to keep them nourished and healthy as they migrate.3,4
Tell your governor to make your state monarch-friendly by growing the plants they need on our public lands.
Monarchs need more native milkweed, the right species of milkweed, as well as nectar plants.5 With all the public land we have, we could create safe havens for monarchs as they migrate each year.
We should be growing native nectar plants for monarchs along our state highways, on our public university lands and outside government buildings — including on the grounds of our state Capitol and governor’s mansion.
Monarch butterflies are iconic — one of the most beautiful species of insect on the planet. What a tragedy it would be to lose them forever.
Tell your governor: Make your state a safe haven for monarchs.
- Laura M. Holson, “With 86% Drop, California’s Monarch Butterfly Population Hits Record Low,” The New York Times, January 9, 2019.
- Laura M. Holson, “With 86% Drop, California’s Monarch Butterfly Population Hits Record Low,” The New York Times, January 9, 2019.
- Laura M. Holson, “With 86% Drop, California’s Monarch Butterfly Population Hits Record Low,” The New York Times, January 9, 2019.
- Hidetoshi Inamine, Stephen P. Ellner, James P. Springer, Anurag A. Agrawal, “Linking the continental migratory cycle of the monarch butterfly to understand its population decline,” Oikos, April 7, 2016.
- “Monarch Nectar Plant Guides,” Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, accessed January 22, 2019.
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