Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

$1.7 Million for Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund

This is part of the article from NWWF New Releases:

Monarch Caterpillar munching on a milkweed (Asclepias L.) plant.
Monarch caterpillar on a host plant, butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa).

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced $1.7 million in grants to conserve monarch butterflies and other insect pollinators in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The grants were awarded through the Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund (Pollinator Fund), a partnership between NFWF, Bayer Crop Science, Shell Oil Company, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The projects supported by the 13 grants will increase the quality and quantity of pollinator habitat for monarch butterflies, rusty patched bumblebees, and other native pollinators. The projects will also enhance outreach and organizational coordination. Collectively, the funded projects will:

  • Restore and enhance more than 32,000 acres of pollinator habitat.
  • Collect more than 200 pounds of milkweed seed.
  • Propagate more than 19,000 milkweed seedlings.
  • Host more than 160 workshops and meetings that advance pollinator conservation.

A complete list of the 2020 grants made through the Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund is available here. The grants included $100,000 for the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin (MRFW) and $99,996 for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). Reach out to the NRFW and WDNR for grants.

A short video about the Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund can be viewed here.

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Monarch Numbers Drop to Below 2017-2018 Levels

Monarch Status

Something unbelievable has happened to the monarch butterfly population. Due to the extreme climate conditions, the loss of milkweed habitat in the United States and Canada, and deforestation of Mexico, the monarchs’ status dropped to below the 2017-2018 levels.

Scientists estimate 2.1 hectares of North American monarchs overwintering in Mexico during 2020-2021. At least 6 hectares is necessary for a sustainable population of eastern monarchs. Photo by Wendy Caldwell of Monarch Joint Venture.

Illegal Logging

Illegal logging in the monarchs’ wintering grounds rose to almost 13.4 hectares (33 acres). Plus, wind storms, drought, beetles, and disease caused the loss of another 6.9 hectares (17 acres) in the reserve. In addition, the butterflies are looking for water since the forests are dry from the drought. They look for water at the lower level of the slopes, leaving the warmth of the pine and fir trees in the upper level.

What Can You Do to Help?

Habitat loss, particularly the host plant milkweed, pesticide and herbicide use, as well as climate change, all pose threats to the species’ migration.

Reference The Amazing Monarch Migration. Monarchs need milkweed for the spring, and during the summer and fall migration, the adults need nectar. They use asters, meadow blazingstar, coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, beebalm, and other native flowers (as well as some non-native ones). The efforts to create, maintain, enhance, and protect habitat for monarchs and pollinators can make a difference. Creating and maintaining habitat, educating others, contributing data to citizen science programs, and advocating for the protection of wild spaces are things we all can do.

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The e-mail photo is by Wendy Caldwell.

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Warranted but Precluded

Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that the
Endangered Species Act Listing for the monarch butterfly was “warranted, but precluded” by work on higher-priority listing actions.

First monarch of the season nectaring on Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica). Photo courtesy of Donna VanBuecken

With this decision, the monarch becomes a candidate for listing, and its status will be reviewed each year until it is no longer a candidate. In the case of the monarch butterfly, the USFWS states that they plan to propose the monarch for listing in fiscal year 2024 if the listing is still warranted (as prioritized by the National Listing Workplan).

ESA and Habitat

Trump’s administration finalizes the “new” Endangered Species Act before the end.

Monarch butterfly on Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) at the WILD Center. Photo courtesy of Donna VanBuecken

On December 20, 2020, USFWS defines habitat under ESA: “Habitat is the abiotic and biotic setting that currently or periodically contains the resources and conditions necessary to support one or more life processes of a species.” This definition prohibits the federal agencies from designating areas that are not currently occupied by the species as habitat and would further ecosystem restoration improvements to become suitable habitat. It would also prohibit federal agencies from protecting areas that could become important habitat for rare species under climate change.

Another finalized rule allows USFWS to exclude areas from critical habitat designations for endangered species if the critical habitat designation would cause negative economic impacts or harm national security or outdoor recreation opportunities.

We Can We Do?

Monarch butterfly ovipositing onto the host plant milkweed. Photo by Candi Sarikonda.

“This scientific review of the population status clearly demonstrates that monarchs need our urgent support. Voluntary, proactive conservation is necessary, and this work goes beyond monarchs; by conserving monarchs, we benefit grassland habitats and countless organisms. This supports the delicate balance of biodiversity and helps mitigate the decline of many species, before they need ESA protections.” (Monarch Joint Venture)

Share knowledge to create habitat and educate the community about monarchs and pollinators. Help researchers better understand these trends. Report findings of citizen science to community science projects like Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper or Journey North. If you are able to document this behavior of monarch larva at the same site(s) on a weekly basis, we strongly encourage getting involved in the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project to keep a more detailed account of your observations.

Check out USFWS Questions and Answers: 12-month finding on a petition to list the monarch butterfly and watch for more updates on the USFWS monarch butterfly page. Find contact information for your House and Senate representatives to write them and express your opinion.

States have their Monarch Conservation Strategy

Monarch nectaring on Rough Blazingstar (Liatris aspera). Photo courtesy of Donna VanBuecken

According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), the  Natural Heritage Conservation “will continue to support the Wisconsin Monarch Collaborative to implement the twenty-year Wisconsin Monarch Conservation Strategy. That strategy seeks to enlist homeowners, farmers, utilities, and other groups in voluntarily adding native milkweed and wildflowers to their property, with a goal of adding around 120 million more native milkweed stems, along with nectar sources, to the Wisconsin landscape by 2038. Habitat loss is the primary driver for the 80 percent decline in the eastern U.S. population of monarchs that breeds in Wisconsin during the summer.” (WDNR)

Connecticut Butterfly Atlas Project

Illinois Monarch Monarch Initiative

Indiana Monarch Monarch Conservation Plan

Iowa Monarch Conservation Strategy

Kentucky Monarch Conservation Plan

Maryland Monarch Conservation

Michigan Monarch Strategy

Mid-American Monarch Conservation  Strategy
(Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin)

Minnesota The Monarch Joint Venture

Missourians for Monarchs

New Jersey Monarch Butterfly Guide

New York Pollinator Conservation Association

Environment North Carolina

North Dakota Monarch Butterfly and Native Pollinator Strategy

Ohio Pollinator Habitat Program

Pennsylvania Save the Monarch

Texas Monarch Flyway Strategy  and  Gulf-Houston Monarch Flyway

Western States Monarch Conservation Plan(California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah)

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The e-mail photo is by Judy Kesser.

 

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Western Monarchs Closer to Extinction

Graph courtesy of Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Today is a sad day. Across 261 overwintering sites, volunteers counted only 1,914 monarch butterflies for the Western monarch population of California.

How does this year compare to previous years? When the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count was started in 1997, over 1.2 million monarchs were counted at over 101 sites. In 2018 and 2019, the population of Western monarchs was around 30,000 monarchs, which researchers posited as the extinction threshold.

Mendocino National Forest wildfire. Photo courtesy of United States Forest Service.

Was climate change responsible? The warming planet expedited the butterfly declines across the West making food shortages much more extreme.

The warming planet is responsible for dry vegetation, which is the catalyst for this year’s wildfires. The devastating wildfires consumed butterfly habitat across the West. According to University of California-Davis ecologist Arthur Shapiro, who has researched the largest butterfly database in North America, Solano County habitat is completely gone. It will take at least three to five years for the habitat to recover. In the High North Coast Range, a million acres have burned, mainly in the Mendocino National Forest, home to numerous rare plants that host butterflies.

Scarlet milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) with a monarch caterpillar and large milkweed bugs. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia by DarkFrog.

Why is tropical milkweed discouraged? One of the drawbacks in the West, is the introduction of tropical milkweed. It usually does not die back in the winter like most native milkweeds. The milkweed can disrupt migration and encourage breeding during months when monarchs should be in reproductive diapause at their overwintering grounds. Reproductive diapause allows migrating monarchs to delay their reproduction, which extends their life for a number of months until they return to their northward migration.

The persistence of  year-round milkweed allows the protozoan parasite known as Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) to build up on the plants and increase the spread to monarch offspring that eat those plants. In contrast, native milkweeds that die back are able to “cleanse themselves” of the OE spores that build up on their leaves.

Why don’t monarchs have state and federal legal protection? Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that monarch butterflies are “warranted but precluded” from listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. That means that monarchs are to be re-evaluated for listing once a year for federal protection. The state has not offered protection under the California Endangered Species Act for terrestrial invertebrates (including insect pollinators such as the monarch and bumblebee).

Through education and shared knowledge of creating habitat, the farmers, ranchers, and roadside managers will develop ecological farming that will prevent soil erosion, sequester carbon, and retain and infiltrate water. Photo courtesy of Steve Massen.

Who is to blame? The main problem is loss of overwintering, breeding, and migratory habitat in California. Climate change and the wildfires remain. For the time being, the pesticide use will remain. Farmers and ranchers need to learn to restore and manage pollinator habitat on working landscapes  and work with managers of roadsides, energy infrastructure, forests, and grasslands to enhance current habitat and create new habitat.

What can you do to help? Share knowledge to create habitat and educate the community about monarchs and pollinators. Help researchers better understand these trends. Report findings of citizen science to community science projects like Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper or Journey North. If you are able to document this behavior of monarch larva at the same site(s) on a weekly basis, we strongly encourage getting involved in the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project to keep a more detailed account of your observations.

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The e-mail photo is by Candy Sarikonda

 

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