Ames, Iowa — A new report from Iowa State University that details efforts to boost monarch butterfly habitats statewide essentially finds, so far, so good.
Steven Bradbury, a professor of natural resource ecology and management at ISU, says thousands of landowners, farmers, and backyard gardeners are joining in the cause, working to reestablish the milkweed and other native wildflowers that are vital to the iconic butterfly’s survival.
The state’s conservation plan calls for creating new monarch habitats wherever possible in order to boost the insects’ population by as much as 25 percent per generation. The report details how the number of acres isn’t the only key factor, but also where those acres are located. In addition, creating habitat near corn and soybean fields helps the monarchs, even if those fields are treated with insecticides.
The report offers an overview of at least 20 ISU studies on monarchs, as well as work by other researchers. The consortium was formed seven years ago, a diverse partnership of more than 45 local, state, and federal agencies and organizations. Working together, he says the message is being delivered about the vital role monarchs serve as pollinators and what individual Iowans can do to preserve them.
The orange-and-black insects are a key element in providing pollination services to agriculture, estimated to be worth three billion dollars a year. Researchers are using tiny radio transmitters to track female monarchs for insight into their flight patterns, as they fly sometimes dozens of miles a day. The ISU report is being published this month in BioScience.
