TORONTO—A concerted national effort to plant the traditionally unloved milkweed is needed to reverse a precipitous decline in the monarch butterfly population, conservationists say.
They’re hoping the federal government will step up with money and moral suasion to aid in an effort they say needs to include power line, road, and rail agencies.
Estimates are that the migratory monarchs have declined by 90 percent across North America over the past two decades, in part because of the eradication of milkweed, the only food plant the butterflies use as caterpillars.
Essentially, no milkweed means no monarchs.
“When you have these massive declines in milkweed, it results in these massive declines in monarchs,” said Tyler Flockhart, a conservation biologist and researcher at the University of Guelph.
“Because the monarch population is basically in a downward spiral, getting milkweed in the ground is the most important thing.”
Most monarchs—described by the federal government as a “symbol of international co-operation, conservation and appreciation of nature”—migrate along various routes through the United States between Canada and Mexico.
