Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a butterfly. My money says the fluttering insect you’re envisioning has black-veined, reddish-orange wings outlined with white specks — the iconic attributes of our beloved, American, monarch butterfly.
Unfortunately, the species, which populates many childhood memories, is in trouble.
The migrating monarch butterfly was added last week to the “red list” of threatened species and categorized as “endangered” for the first time by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. That’s two steps from extinct in the wild.
Scientists blamed the monarchs’ plummeting numbers on habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide and herbicide use.
People are also reading…
FILE – A Monarch butterfly eats nectar from a swamp milkweed on the shore of Rock Lake on July 22, 2012, in Pequot Lakes, Minn. The International Union of Conservation of Nature officially categorized the monarch as “endangered” and added it to its Red List of Threatened Species on July 21. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt, File)
What can home gardeners do to support the monarch?
If everyone reading this planted one milkweed plant, the benefit would be palpable. Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) is the only plant monarch caterpillars eat, and it’s where the adult butterflies lay their eggs. Without it, the species simply could not exist.
“But not all milkweed is the same,” says Dawn Rodney, chief innovation and growth officer at the National Wildlife Federation in Reston, Virginia. For instance, “there is an invasive species called tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) that we’re seeing more and more, and people are not understanding that it does more harm than good.”
The non-native plant is problematic because it blooms for longer and, in temperate regions, does not die back. That can prevent butterflies from recognizing when it’s time to migrate, and it can spread deadly parasites to the next year’s generation of caterpillars.
To choose the right milkweed, use the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder ( https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/ ).
This image provided by Garden for Wildlife shows a monarch butterfly caterpillar munching on a milkweed leaf. The International Union of Conservation of Nature officially categorized the monarch as “endangered” and added it to its Red List of Threatened Species on July 21. (Julie Richards/Garden for Wildlife via AP)
Beyond milkweed
Adult monarchs need other plants too, specifically ones with nectar-bearing flowers. The National Wildlife Federation also has a Monarch Nectar Plant List tool ( https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/Monarch-Nectar-Guides ), developed with Monarch Joint Venture and Xerces Society), to find plants appropriate for your location.
Choose plants native to your region for the highest-quality food source. Be sure to include late-season bloomers to provide monarchs with fuel for their annual fall migration.
Knowing the source of the plants you buy is important, too.
FILE – Monarch butterflies land on branches at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. On Thursday, July 21, 2022, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said migrating monarch butterflies have moved closer to extinction in the past decade – prompting scientists to officially designate them as “endangered.” (AP Photo/Nic Coury, File)
“There are a lot of growers that use different types of chemicals that are harmful to wildlife,” Rodney said, referring to pesticides and herbicides intended to keep plants attractive on retail shelves. When you bring treated plants home, and butterflies lay eggs on them, the caterpillars that follow will die when they munch the leaves.
Neonicotinoid pesticides are especially harmful to the species, Rodney said, as they can kill bees and adult butterflies that ingest the toxic pollen and nectar of treated plants.
Since treated plants aren’t labeled as such, Rodney advises asking garden center staff about their pest-management practices. Buying only from trusted, organic sources or growing your own plants from seed are other good options.
FILE – A Monarch butterfly pauses in a field of Goldenrod on Sept. 11, 2020, at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. The International Union of Conservation of Nature officially categorized the monarch as “endangered” and added it to its Red List of Threatened Species on July 21. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
This brings me to pesticide use in the home garden. When we use chemicals on our plants, we accept beneficial insects, including monarchs, as collateral damage. We also endanger birds that eat those poisoned insects.
Even natural and organic pesticides can harm butterflies and other pollinators. But if you must use such a product, stick with insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils or Neem oil, and apply them only after dusk, when pollinators aren’t active. Unlike many synthetic chemicals, these products lose their effectiveness when dry, so the butterflies will be safer by morning.
Finally, consider going the extra mile by setting up a butterfly puddling station: Create a mud puddle (or add water to sand) in a sunny spot of the yard and set a flat stone within it. Butterflies will sun themselves on the stone to raise their temperatures, and will sip water from the puddle to supplement their nectar diets with the salts, vitamins and minerals they need.
Monarch butterflies have reached endangered status. But it’s not all bad news.
Monarch butterflies have reached endangered status. But it’s not all bad news.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially classified monarch butterflies as endangered. The group’s red list, which includes over 147,000 species, is used by NGOs, private companies, and global policymakers to inform conservation efforts for threatened and endangered species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered the monarch’s status in 2020 and determined that classifying the butterflies as endangered was warranted but that there were higher priorities. The species will be assessed again in 2024 to determine whether it will receive protections under the Endangered Species Act. These protections include the designation of critical habitat—land on which habitat-damaging activity and development by government agencies and private citizens would be prohibited, and the banning of “taking,” trapping, or killing the monarchs.
“If nothing else, the process of reviewing monarchs and getting people to talk about their decline and conservation has generated a lot of momentum,” said Wendy Caldwell, executive director of the nonprofit Monarch Joint Venture. “We’re making a lot of progress there and can continue to do so with or without that [classification].”
Both Eastern and Western monarch populations showed a slight increase during the most recent counts. Western monarchs stay west of the Rocky Mountains and spend winters in Southern California and the Southwest, while Eastern monarchs, whose migration is better-documented, spend winters from Central Mexico to lower Canada.
Although the population uptick sparked hopes of recovery among conservationists, the insect still faces a long road to reaching the population level it held three decades ago when an estimated 700 million made the annual migratory journey. “This is an improvement, but larger numbers are needed to significantly improve the population,” Karen Klinger, a GIS specialist examining monarch habitats at the Field Museum in Chicago, told Stacker.
Both populations make a multigenerational journey to breed throughout the summer and return home for the winter. Though intensive, monarch migration is also incredibly delicate, relying on favorable climate conditions and an abundance of the only plant monarch caterpillars eat—milkweed. Shifting landscapes and climate change have contributed to the monarch’s long-term decline.
Stacker looked at the decline of Eastern and Western monarch butterfly populations and contextualized the challenges facing the species, citing data from the World Wildlife Fund and the Xerces Society.
You may also like: How communities are dealing with invasive species across the U.S.
After record-low counts over the past four years, Western monarch winter populations showed an uptick in 2021
When the Xerces Society first began winter counts of Western monarchs in 1997, it surveyed just over 100 sites along the California coast. Today, its Thanksgiving counts cover over 283 sites in the Southwest and California. Even with the expanded survey range, a Stacker analysis showed that monarch counts declined by 80%. When normalized by the average count seen at every site, the population is nearly half of what it was. Historic droughts, wildfires, and encroaching developments have shrunk overwintering habitats, and pesticide use has impacted breeding areas.
Monarchs occupied 35% more land in Mexico last winter than in the previous winter
In 2016, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico set a goal to reestablish Eastern monarchs in six hectares of forest in Mexico by 2020, a range that would protect the species from extinction thresholds even with the natural dips in its population. Though the deadline has passed, conservationists are still working toward that goal. A 2017 U.S. Geological Survey report estimated that over 1.3 billion stems of milkweed were needed throughout the Eastern monarch’s migration corridor. All but one of the 16 scenarios the USGS developed to reach that goal rely on land from the agriculture, residential, conservation, energy, and transportation sectors. Agriculture is the only sector that has the coverage area to restore the needed milkweed by itself.
Monoculture and large-scale use of pesticides have impacted pollinator populations
Unlike other plants that spread through seeds or runners, milkweed spreads via underground stems called rhizomes. “We probably, through agriculture, expanded the quantity of milkweed just by disturbing the landscape through cultivation,” Caldwell said. But changes in agricultural practices, including wider use of pesticides, consolidation of smaller farms, and the introduction of herbicide-resistant, genetically modified crops have reduced the spread of milkweed.
“Those agricultural fields used to be really productive for monarchs. They’re not anymore, but we want to bring that back again,” Mark Johnston, a GIS analyst with the Field Museum, told Stacker. “There is a big push, at least in our region, to try to get back to sustainable agriculture,” he said. This means scaling back heavy conventional production in favor of more diverse crops and avoiding herbicides like glyphosate, which decimate milkweed.
The U.S. Geological Survey has also recommended converting margins of monoculture farms to environmentally diverse habitats under the Conservation Reserve Program. In the application-based system, farmers are paid annual rent to halt agricultural production over a 10-15 year period, instead planting species that can support habitat and improve environmental quality. Such alternatives have different goals, with some focused on mitigating soil erosion or improving water quality and others targeting pollinators and endangered species.
Beyond agriculture, “right-of-way” corridors have also offered an opportunity to support pollinators in non-residential zones. Under an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Illinois at Chicago has, since 2017, been partnering with transportation and energy companies to provide monarch habitats on those companies’ land in exchange for regulatory easement on other portions of land. Companies participating in the agreement are subject to additional conservation regulations under the Endangered Species Act, and could continue activities that are estimated to have a minimal or temporary impact on monarch habitats.
Climate change has also disrupted monarch migratory patterns
Eastern monarchs, living anywhere from two to six weeks, make their 3,000-mile journey through a migratory relay race. Traveling 25-30 miles daily, they stop at breeding grounds to lay eggs for the next generation that will continue the trip north. Decreasing day length, temperature fluctuations, and milkweed quality are environmental cues that signal monarchs to delay reproduction and begin their return south. But climate change has made that process more fragile.
“What monarchs need most is well-timed resources,” Caldwell said, and what scientists call “phenological mismatch” has become more prevalent. This could be a late freeze killing swaths of milkweed in the South where the first generation of monarchs will stop to breed, or it could be later blooming times that make it harder for monarchs to find nectar—in essence, it is a demonstrable circumstance that alters the timing of a species’ life cycle patterns.
The nature of monarchs’ multigenerational journey can also amplify climate’s impact. In a year where temperature and precipitation are favorable, more caterpillars will survive to complete the next leg, exponentially increasing the number of eggs they’ll lay further north and the number of butterflies that will eventually return south.
Home gardeners can help.
Even though the agriculture sector has the biggest opportunity to restore milkweed, the USGS emphasized an “all hands on deck” approach that involves planting across rights-of-way, agricultural, and residential sectors.
Klinger, whose work with the Field Museum specializes in examining monarch habitats in metropolitan areas and along rights-of-way, said that the most successful gardens have many blooming flowers and diverse types of milkweed. Some species, like swamp milkweed, are preferred for egg-laying, while others may offer advantages based on seasonal circumstances. It’s also important that gardeners plant native milkweed because non-native varieties, such as tropical milkweed, can become invasive.
Regardless of space, Klinger emphasized that many habitats can support monarchs. “We have people monitoring patches of all shapes and sizes, from one or two plants to hundreds of plants in their garden,” she said. Through the Field Museum’s citizen science monitoring project in the greater Chicago area, they’ve seen a single potted milkweed support a butterfly’s full life cycle. Monarchs have been seen flying as high as 11,000 feet, so even skyscraper gardens can be beneficial. The above photograph, submitted to the project by a participant, shows a milkweed plant covered in caterpillars—evidence that even the most modest footprints can have a significant effect.
For all the latest Life Style News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
