With a little bit of home gardening, you can be a big part of the monarch butterfly comeback story
Since the 1990s, researchers estimate the monarch butterfly population has
plummeted by a whopping 90%.
What's caused the sharp drop in this beautiful species? Herbicides, logging, and modern farming:
A big part of it is the way the United States farms. As the price of corn has soared in recent years, driven by federal subsidies for biofuels, farmers have expanded their fields. That has meant plowing every scrap of earth that can grow a corn plant, including millions of acres of land once reserved in a federal program for conservation purposes.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department wants to change that as soon as possible. They've launched an ambitious "butterfly highway" between Minnesota and Texas:
The pollinating butterflies rely on milkweed plants to survive. They lay their eggs on the plant, which is also their main source of food.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials, along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, announced plans Thursday to tag and track the monarchs.
The national effort will also plant milkweed along Interstate 35 from Minnesota to Texas, making a “butterfly highway.”
“As we know, it’s not easy for this little monarch butterfly to fly all the way from Canada down to Mexico. And it takes actually several generations, it’s an incredible story. And if that monarch’s going to try so hard to get down there, I think we can help a little bit,” Klobuchar said.
Learn more about their migration route and small things that you can do to help restore the monarch population
here.
If you've never seen the amazing process of a monarch emerging, watch this:
For more information on the Minnesota initiative, watch below: