The Washington Area Butterfly Club presents three different ways YOU can help Monarch butterflies.
HOW TO HELP MONARCHS
1. In Your Garden.
- Plant for Caterpillars.
Monarch caterpillars eat milkweeds and milkweeds only. To help females find places to lay their eggs, start a milkweed nursery patch in your garden or elsewhere. Native species to plant include: Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Swamp Milkweed (A. incarnata), and Butterfly Weed (A. tuberosa). Monarch Watch offers a photo guide to milkweed species, along with a propogation guide. Visit their Web site at: http://www.monarchwatch.org/milkweed/guide/index.htm.
- Plant for Adult Monarchs.
Clumps of late-blooming nectar plants will provide much-needed refueling stops for southbound migrants this fall. Good choices include: New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae), New York Aster (A. novi-belgii), Goldenrods (Solidago ssp), and Tickseed Sunflower (Bidens coronata).
Some Sources for Monarch Plants.
To order native milkweed plants locally:
- Wings & Wildflowers (visit by appointment only)
8619 Hawkins Creamery Road
Gaithersburg, MD 20882
301-253-6908
($4 per plant. Profits support forest restoration in Mexico's Monarch sanctuaries. Supplies limited.)
- Visit our up-to-date list of local plant sales, many of which carry good plants for Monarchs.
To order native seed or plants by mail:
2. Participate in Citizen Science Research.
- Monitor Monarch Caterpillars
Pick a milkweed patch and collect data on its milkweed and Monarch caterpillars throughout the summer for the University of Minnesota-based Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project. This year is especially important for comparison with previous five years. Register and learn how: http://www.mlmp.org.
- Volunteer as a Tagger for Fall Migration
Monarch Watch is a large-scale tag-and-recapture project that helps determine Monarch migration patterns and conservation needs. To join and receive tags, download the order form at http://www.monarchwatch.org/order.
- Report Monarch Sightings During Migrations
Northbound (spring)—Journey North, http://www.learner.org/north
Southbound (fall)—Monarch Watch, http://www.monarchwatch.org
3. Donate to Conservation Efforts.
- Monarch Watch (nonprofit). Ongoing multi-faceted, University of
Kansas-based Monarch education and conservation project. Offers tags, rearing kits, and other educational materials. Urgently needs funds to purchase recovered tags from Mexican peasants in order to quantify winter damage. Make checks payable to "Monarch Fund." Send to:
Monarch Watch
1200 Sunnyside Avenue
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045
http://www.monarchwatch.org
- The Monarch Migration Monitoring Project. Employs full-time, experienced monitor/taggers for six weeks each fall to collect data on migrations at discrete posts along the East Coast. Info/donations:
Sweet Briar College, Monarch Migration Monitoring Project
c/o Lincoln Brower PhD, Research Professor of Biology
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar, VA 24595
- The Michoacan Restoration Fund. A cooperative effort of Mexico, Canada, and the United States to replace oyamel forests within the Mexican sanctuaries. Logging of these trees, vital to the survival of overwintering Monarchs, is the main source of income for local
peasants. Visit their web site at: http://michoacanmonarchs.org/.
Updated October 28, 2007