Long Live the Monarch Butterflies...Or How To At Least Help
Lots of symbols usher in the Fall season: schoolbooks, turning leaves, and an edict to stop wearing white, to name a few. Among my personal favorite signs of the season's turn in the annual fall Monarch butterfly migration. Beginning in late August and mid-September, hundreds of millions of beautiful orange, black and white-winged creatures travel an enormous trek -- up to 3,000 miles -- to spend the winter in Mexico or southern California or Florida.
The migration is one of the most amazing and endangered phenomenon in the natural world (check out a route map here). Monarchs are the only butterfly to travel such an amazingly long two-way distance, as they flutter 20 to 30 miles a day conserving energy by moving from tree to tree and feasting on milkweed. Like birds or whales, they tend to return to the same exact wintering forests, often the same exact trees, each year. Except what's even more amazing is that it's not the same butterfly to return each year -- because of their four to eight week lifespan, it's typically the grandchild or even great-grandchild of the original butterfly that makes the final return. Scientists do not yet understand how these instincts are ingrained and passed down.
This year brings a mixed bag of news for the monarchs. On the positive side, the Mexican government has apparently made enormous strides in cracking down on illegal logging in butterfly reserves, which has decreased by 300-times in the past five years. The bad news, however, is this has not coincided with a boost of the declining monarch population. According to a World Wildlife Fund study, only about 1/4 as many butterflies are returning to their wintering grounds in Western Mexico this year. They attribute the continuing decline to climate change, drought, pesticides, and extreme weather that knocks down trees. Another huge and long-term threat to the monarchs is the increasing development of prairies and fields, which cuts down on available milkweed and nectar for them to eat.
From my own perch in Washington, D.C. this season, I've just started to notice a few fluttering monarchs on my normally drab trudge to pick up some caffeine each morning. Monarchs, among the most beautiful and largest butterflies in North America, give us so much pleasure. I think they deserve a pretty special effort from us to protect them. You can help monarchs on their journey this fall by setting up a monarch "waystation" in your home garden, school, business, park or even on a nearby roadside. Monarch Watch provides some simple instructions for doing this here. You can also help out scientists studying monarch biology and conservation by reporting your monarch sitings at the Journey North site here, or participating in a monarch tagging project to map their migration routes. And if you simply want to sit on a bench and enjoy the passing butterflies, here is a tool to figure out the peak migration dates in your area. Enjoy!
Photo Credit: DocentJoyce, Flickr user
Jess Leber
is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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