Bring Back the Monarchs Campaign

Recently hatched Monarch, drying its wings!

I am a member of North Oakland Wild Ones Organization. An email was sent to me from Jim Brueck, President of our Wild Ones chapter concerning the Bring Back the Monarch Campaign. Monarch Watch Conservation Specialist Candy Sarikonda is collaborating with The Oak Openings Region chapter of Wild Ones on a community wide campaign to educate and help members plant/grow native species of milkweed everywhere possible to create the nourishing habitat for the Monarchs. Brueck and others would like to see this program expanded to here in Michigan. 

Novice just out testing its dry wings!

North Oakland Wild Ones, under the leadership of Trish Hacker Hennig, American Roots Wildflowers, and Jim Brueck, have started such gardens in Depot Park, Clarkston, MI. Many plantings of Asclepias incarnata and  fewer plants of Asclepias tuberosa, (Milkweed varieties),  have been planted in the Children's Garden and in the Rain Garden there in Depot Park. Planted with the Monarchs of the area in mind to have a way station for them to nectar on as they pass through. Brueck and Hennig are encouraging us all to plant a few milkweed plants in our gardens to expand the way stations throughout our area.

The importance of such gardens, strategically located throughout the Midwest, is because so many of  the natural areas that the Monarchs are so dependent on are decreasing. Trish Hennig states in the email, "With the Round-up ready crops. . corn and soybeans, farmers are now spraying his herbicide on ENTIRE fields, (creeping in the food we eat or perhaps what gets fed to the animals we eat) and studies are showing that for some reason Monarchs prefer to lay their eggs on plants in the center of the fields..between the rows of vegetables, rather than on the field edges. So in a place that might have had milkweeds sprouting from cultivated roots in the past..now because of the herbicided fields there is no residual milkweed there at all... on acres and acres and acres across the Midwest."

More than enough reason for all of us to plant milkweed to start a way station of our own for our beautiful Monarch Butterflies.

On his/her way to Mexico.... Made in America!

If you are a member of Wild Ones, Hennig is offering a free milkweed plant. If you are not a member and would like to join, please contact Jim Brueck at mdbrueck@gmail.com If you even have a question about this program or what Wild Ones is all about drop an email to Jim. Happy Butterflying!