Almost 1 billion monarch butterflies have vanished

Monarch Butterfly - Danaus plexippus

The Washington Post reports a truly disturbing fact brought to light today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service summed it up in just one grim statistic on Monday: Since 1990, about 970 million have vanished. It happened as farmers and homeowners sprayed herbicides on milkweed plants, which serve as the butterflies’ nursery, food source and home. In an attempt to counter two decades of destruction, the Fish and Wildlife Service launched a partnership with two private conservation groups, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to basically grow milkweed like crazy in the hopes of saving the monarchs.

From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's press release:

“We can save the monarch butterfly in North America, but only if we act quickly and together,” said Ashe. “And that is why we are excited to be working with the National Wildlife Federation and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to engage Americans everywhere, from schools and community groups to corporations and governments, in protecting and restoring habitat. Together we can create oases for monarchs in communities across the country.”

I went to an inner-city school in East Harlem, from elementary school through high school. To this day I remember, as do many children who are not such young children anymore, the activity of taking monarch butterflies from caterpillar through their entire lifecycle. We fed them sugar water on droppers and then went into the concrete yard off of Lexington Avenue and let them free. They were everywhere. READ MORE