Monarch butterflies need our help!
The regal butterflies, hit hard by the torrential February rains in Mexico, are at their lowest population levels since 1975, according to Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. The storms killed 50 to 60 percent of the breeding colonies in northern Mexico; the butterfly population was already diminished by unfavorable conditions last summer.
The monarchs are just about to start their springtime flight back to the United States and Canada. Taylor and other researchers are asking the public to help the remaining monarchs by planting the butterflies’ favored food, milkweed, along their flight path. Visit the Monarch Waystation Program for information on how to establish a milkweed plot to help these beautiful and imperiled critters.