250 Million Monarch Butterfly Gardens for 250 Million Monarchs in 2020

Summary: Can 250 million gardeners cultivate 250 million monarch butterfly gardens for 250 million North American monarchs of Canada, Mexico and the United States?

monarch butterfly on butterfly weed, New Jersey: Laura Perlick/Northeast Region Image Library, Public Domain, via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library

Monarch butterfly gardens are ways that gardeners in North America can help make possible a count of 250 million monarch butterflies in the 2020 census of Canada, Mexico and the United States.

A rabble of 250 million monarch butterflies becomes sustainably realistic after surveys conducted in the central Mexican states of Mexico and of Michoacán in December 2015. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) surveys calculate coverage of 10 acres (4.05 hectares) by 150 million overwintering monarchs in contrast to 2.8 acres (1.13 hectares) in 2014. Yearly counts describe coverages of 45 acres (18.21 hectares) by 1 billion monarchs in 1996 and of 1.66 acres (0.67 hectares) by 35 million in 2013.

Omar Vidal, director general for WWF-Mexico, emphasizes protecting and restoring “habitat of this butterfly along its migratory route.”

Temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.56 degrees Celsius) find monarch butterflies venturing on autumnal and springtime journeys of 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers) without any practice flights. Monarch butterfly populations in Florida get to stay year-round even though all generations elsewhere go farther south in the fall and farther north in the spring. They have to overwinter on oyamel fir (Abies religiosa) branches and to shelter eggs on milkweed leaves (Asclepias spp) in planned and wild monarch butterfly gardens.

Mortality is high in winter because of diminished toxicity of cardiac glycosides to predatory birds and mice and because of habitat loss to agro-industrialists and loggers. Predation by protozoan parasites (Ophryocystis elektroschirra) joins with loss of habitat and toxicity of pesticides to account for summer mortalities.

Sunlit niches in coastal dunes during autumn, conifer groves during winter and fields and meadows during spring and summer keep monarchs alive 2.75 to 6 months.

Monarchs live 4 to 6 days as ivory-colored eggs and 2 to 3 weeks as green newborns and black, white and yellow-striped second through fifth instars. They may spend anywhere from 5 to 15 days as gold-studded, j-shaped, jade-green, silk-hardened chrysalises whose crown-like, golden lines explain the 17th-century colonial American designation monarch. Black-bordered, black-veined, orange-bodied, white-dotted monarchs need minerals from moist gravels and soils and nectars from wildflowers to live out their 1.5 to 4.5 months as adults.

Planned and wild monarch butterfly gardens offer native and naturalized wildflowers as nectar sources and milkweeds as larval host plants.

Dan Ashe, director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, promises that the USFWS will expand the already 250,000 acres (101,171.41 hectares) of pesticide-free fields. Instinct-charted migration routes free of pesticides and full of milkweeds from Canada to Mexico qualify for “a coordinated citizen effort on a scale never before seen.”

Mauve-flowering swamp weed (Asclepias incarnata) requires open, sunny, well-drained moister soils in monarch butterfly gardens whereas butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) welcomes open, sunny, well-drained drier soils. They stand particularly bright and fetching with blue oat grass, catmint, cosmos, globe thistle, goldenrod, grey-leaved ornamental thistle, lantana, lilac, sheep’s fescue, threadleaf coreopsis and zinnia.

It takes just minutes to cultivate 250 million milkweed-filled, pesticide-free monarch butterfly gardens to welcome 250 million monarchs in 2020.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) calculates coverage of 10 acres in central Mexican states of Mexico and of Michoacán by 150 million overwintering monarchs in a December 2015 survey: US Fish and Wildlife @USFWS, via Twitter March 1, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

monarch butterfly on butterfly weed, New Jersey: Laura Perlick/Northeast Region Image Library, Public Domain, via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library @ http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/10268/

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) calculates coverage of 10 acres in central Mexican states of Mexico and of Michoacán by 150 million overwintering monarchs in a December 2015 survey: US Fish and Wildlife @USFWS, via Twitter March 1, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/USFWS/status/704748841841598464

For further information:

“1 Million for Monarchs.” World Wildlife Fund.
Available @ http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/1-million-for-monarchs

“Adopt a Monarch Butterfly.” World Wildlife Fund > Gift Center > Species Adoptions.
Available @ https://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/species-adoptions/monarch-butterfly.aspx?sc=awy1505wc920&_ga=1.203787280.1444470907.1456423086

Botkin-Kowacki, Eva. 1 March 2016. “Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Population Makes a Comeback. What Happened?” The Christian Science Monitor > Science.
Available @ http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0301/Mexico-s-monarch-butterfly-population-makes-a-comeback.-What-happened

Burnett, Victoria. 27 February 2016. “Monarch Butterfly Migration Rebounds, Easing Some Fears.” New York Times > World > Americas.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/world/americas/monarch-butterfly-migration-rebounds-easing-some-fears.html?src=mv

Fears, Darryl. 29 February 2016. “Monarch Butterfly, Manatee Populations Are on a Big Rebound.” Chicago Tribune > News > Nation & World.
Available @ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-monarch-butterflies-manatees-populations-20160229-story.html

Gilkleson, Joanna. 26 February 2016. “Monarch Numbers Increase, But Work to Restore Butterflies Is Not Over.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service > Midwest > News.
Available @ http://www.fws.gov/midwest/news/MonarchPopulation2016.html

Herskovitz, Jon. 27 February 2016. Updated 29 February 2016. “Monarch Butterflies Rebounding But Population Still Well Off Highs.” Channel News Asia > Lifestyle.
Available @ http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/lifestyle/monarch-butterflies-rebou/2553748.html

Kelly, Margie. 26 February 2016. “Environmental News: Media Center.” Natural Resources Defense Council > Archive > Press Release.
Available @ http://www.nrdc.org/media/2016/160226.asp

Sole, Carola. 29 February 2016. “Monarch Butterfly Population Surges in Mexico.” Discovery News > Animals > Insects.
Available @ http://news.discovery.com/animals/insects/monarch-butterfly-population-surges-in-mexico-160229.htm

Stevenson, Mark. 28 February 2016. “Mexico Documents Big Rebound in Monarch Butterflies.” Seattle PI > News > Science.
Available @ http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Mexico-documents-big-rebound-in-monarch-6856561.php

“Survey Suggests Migratory Monarchs Are Rebounding – with a Long Road Ahead.” World Wildlife Fund > Stories.
Available @ http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/survey-suggests-migratory-monarchs-are-rebounding-with-a-long-road-ahead

US Fish and Wildlife @USFWS. 1 March 2016. "Manatees & Monarchs: Two wild animals on the rebound." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/USFWS/status/704748841841598464

Wanshel, Elyse. 3 March 2016. “Monarch Butterfly Population Soars, Thanks to Conservation Efforts.” The Huffington Post > Edition: US > Trends.
Available @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monarch-butterfly-population-triples-2015_us_56d621f2e4b0bf0dab33cfee