A national wildlife group gave $3.3 million in grants on Monday in order to help tackle the alarming decline of monarch butterflies.
Advertisement
The funding, which will be matched by more than $6.7 million in grantee contributions, will come from the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund NFWF launched earlier this year to restore the butterfly population. “The grants we announce today will fund on-the-ground projects that will quickly contribute to a healthier, more sustainable monarch population”.
Numerous largest grants on Monday, around $ 250,000 each, went to bolstering the grasslands & other habitat in the important migration corridors for the butterflies. One project looks to restore more than 1,000 acres of monarch habitat in the Dakotas, while another includes the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation’s quest to create or improve 7,000 habitat acres along two of the butterfly’s major north-south migration routes.
Monday’s grant has been given to states like Arizona, Illinois, California, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, South Dakota, and Washington. He continues, “We believe that environmental sustainability, as well as increased land productivity are two compatible objectives”, adding “we are committed to staying the course and being a partner in this to see the monarch butterfly rebound”.
Last winter, about 30 million monarchs overwintered in Mexico, and this year, FWS Director Dan Ashe suspects there will be more than 60 million, proving that monarchs are “responding” to habitat enhancement and restoration.
Critics have partly blamed Monsanto’s popular weed killer Roundup for knocking out monarch butterflies’ habitat. Monsanto said in March it was committing $4 million overall, most of it to the foundation’s Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund. These lovely, black-and-orange insects depend not only on nectar-producing plants throughout their range, but also milkweed – the primary food source for monarch caterpillars.
Advertisement
Tom Tidwell, the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, said the Obama administration’s goal to raise monarch numbers to 225 million by 2020 is entirely achievable with private public partnerships like this one. The rest was set aside for the coming years.
