(Radio Iowa) – Surveys at sites in Mexico where monarch butterflies spend the winter have some encouraging news about their numbers. Mykayla Hagaman keeps an eye on those numbers at Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium at Iowa State University.
“Monarchs have occupied seven-point-two-four (7.24) acres at their overwintering sites in Mexico, which is the second year we’ve seen an increase in the monarch population, which is a really encouraging thing,” Hagaman says. She says efforts to increase the habitat for monarchs had helped, but there’s still work to be done.
“Scientists recommend that for a long-term sustainable monarch population, we would need on average about 15 acres of overwintering habitat. And we really haven’t seen those numbers since 2018,” she says. “So we still have a ways to go until we would reach what would be considered a sustainable level.” Hagaman says reestablishing habitat is the best way to help sustain the monarch population.
“And the nice thing about monarchs is that they can really benefit from any size habitat. So whether that be a potted milkweed plant on your porch or a native pollinator garden in your yard or if you have large land available and you can turn that into pollinator habitat, that’s great for them as well,” she says. Hagaman says it doesn’t take a lot of effort to help the cause.
“Any effort that anyone makes to support monarchs can be really beneficial,” she says. Hagaman says you can find more information on creating monarch habitat on the I-S-U Extension website.
