The monarch butterfly population has decreased by 90%, the lowest recorded population occurring in the 2013-14 season.
The Federal government has announced a program to restore 200,000 acres of habitat from California to the Corn Belt, and the program will include more than 750 schoolyard habitats and pollinator gardens.
I think that is wonderful, but when one considers that the PennEast pipeline project is a billion-dollar project, the $3.2 million federal expenditure for monarchs seems rather puny.
In the meantime, let your milkweeds bloom.
The info on the federal program was taken from Lancaster Farming, Feb. 14, 2015, p. B9.
The way that farming has turned it almost impossible to have any milkweeds in fields anymore. Farmers have to spray pesticides in order to get any kind of crop that will allow them to make a profit. The only place I see milkweeds anymore is along field edges and in some unfarmed fields. Progress is not always good to some of natures critters
ReplyDelete