2014 Monarch Waystations Report

 

The numbers are in and they are impressive.

 

Drum roll please!

 

2300+ new habitats created & registered during 2014 ---bringing the total Monarch Waystations to 9,627.

 

“Thank you” to all who worked the soil and installed milkweed and nectar plants - especially those involving students and non-profit civic groups in this holy work.

 

MUCH more work needs to be done to recoup the habitat losses we've inflicted upon our pollinator buddies. Thankfully, there are good folks working full-time on these issues...  

 

--Chip Taylor at MonarchWatch.org (and a small staff, plus a handful of all-volunteer Conservation Specialists) at University of Kansas-Lawrence. 

 

--Karen Oberhauser (and a small staff) at Monarch Lab at Univ. of Minnesota, (including Monarch Joint Venture's work with federal natural resource agencies and non-profits)

 

--Elizabeth Howard (and a small staff) at JourneyNorth.org

 

--Scott Hoffman Black (and a small staff) at the Xerces Society in Portland, OR at Xerces.org

 

--Gary Paul Nabhan has been advocating for pollinators for three decades and has expanded the invitation for  collaborative conservation by inviting farmers, naturalists, writers, artists, ecological restorationists and other change makers to Make Way for Monarchs.org

 

--Erik Mollenhauer and a growing number of educators are using the Monarch Teacher Network.org model for creating new youth conservationists in schools in the US and Canada

 

-- A number of new stake holders  present at the National Conservation Training Center meeting in October 1-3, 2014 in Shepherdstown, WV are more actively involved in monarch conservation due to President Obama's Executive Memo for monarchs and pollinator health. These include many federal agencies but non-profits such as National Wildlife Federation and Wild Ones also attended.

 

Monarchs were lucky this year to be highlighted for intense review by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Thanks to the good work of The Xerces Society,    Center for Biological Diversity,    Center for Food Safety and

Prof. Lincoln Brower for bringing attention to bear through a 100+ page petition to the FWS for monarchs to be classified as a threatened species due to habitat loss.

 

The combined accomplishments of these folks are impressive.

 

Emphasis above on the "small staffs" is exactly why we need YOUR help creating habitat in back yards, schools, communities, parks and beyond. The scientists help us understand where the problem areas are and what to do about it. It's up to us to pick up our shovels and convert some of the 49,000 square miles of lawn (NASA, 2005) back into pollinator-friendly habitat. Also, federal, state and local agencies will address habitat restoration on highway and utility right of way margins as well as habitat in national parks, refuges, forests and monuments. 

 

Special thanks to Jim Lovett at Monarch Watch for creating a ginormous searchable database of all 9K Waystations. Check it out to see what's going on in your zip code, state, and region... Brainstorm this winter with a seed catalog in hand to see where your actions can effect a positive change.  Here's the link:  http://monarchwatch.org/waystations/registry/

 

Good luck to us all in 2015.  As the old timers used to say... it's never been this late before...

 

Ina Warren.

Monarch Mentors, founder