Relief for Weary Monarch Butterflies

Enlarge Image Image Gallery You can help monarch butterfly populations thrive by planting milkweed, the only plant the caterpillars can eat, in your back yard. DAVID CAVAGNARO

Many butterflies are beautiful, but the unique 1,500-mile migratory patterns of dazzling orange and black monarch butterflies make them one of the most well-known. Each spring, millions of adult monarchs leave the remote 60-square-mile patch of fir forest in central Mexico where they spend the winter, and race northward to lay their eggs. A smaller population overwinters in Southern California and flies north to Oregon and Montana. But with North America’s rural land being developed at the rate of 6,000 acres per day, both groups of monarchs face an increasing shortage of suitable plants upon which the caterpillars and adults can feed.

To offset this habitat loss, hundreds of gardeners, schools and even a South Dakota funeral home have set aside special patches of land in an effort to create Monarch Waystations — places where monarchs can reproduce in spring and summer, and stop for much-needed nectar breaks as they fly south in fall. Launched in May 2005, the Waystation program is sponsored by Monarch Watch, a nonprofit alliance of scientists, students and citizens based at the University of Kansas.

“People want to do something beneficial with their property,” says insect ecologist and program director Orley Taylor. Currently, more than 1,000 sites in 43 states and provinces are certified Monarch Waystations.

The minimum size for a certified Waystation is 135 square feet, in any shape — including clustered around a fence row. In addition to at least two species of milkweed (the only host plant monarch larvae eat), a Waystation should include four or more nectar-producing flowers that bloom at different times, such as purple coneflower, goldenrod and floss flower.