Milkweed and Monarch Butterfly Conservation
Conservation efforts to repopulate milkweed and hopefully allow for more monarch butterflies are underway all over the United States.<br /> <br />Monarch butterflies migrate every year throughout North America, feeding on milkweed plants along the way.<br /><br />But milkweed is less prevalent because of expanding crop lands, so there are also fewer monarch butterflies. <br /><br />One study from 2012 shows a loss of 58 percent of milkweed in the Midwest between 1999 and 2010. <br /><br />Conservation efforts to repopulate milkweed and hopefully allow for more monarch butterflies are underway all over the United States including the Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa, The Monarch Joint Venture at the University of Minnesota and Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. <br /><br />These groups are working to raise funds for research and organizing a variety of conservation programs, including establishing over 74 hundred locations dedicated to having milkweed rich yards and protecting known breeding areas for the monarchs.<br /><br />Over the past few years, monarch numbers have dropped significantly. A 2010 report from Northern Iowa showed that 176 monarchs inhabited a 100 acre area. This year there were only 11 spotted in that same space.<br /><br />Another problem facing monarch populations is habitat loss from logging in Mexico, where they spend the winter. <br /><br />What do you think about the conservation efforts being made to protect monarch butterflies and milkweed plants?
