Texas has joined five other states in a federal initiative to turn Interstate 35 into a corridor for monarch butterflies on their annual migrations between Canada and Mexico.
The highway stretches 1,500 miles from Duluth, Minn., to Laredo and basically tracks the migration route. States along the path have agreed to work with the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make the corridor more butterfly-friendly. The effort will primarily be planting milkweed and other flowering plants along the highway to provide nectar for the butterflies. Milkweed is the only plant upon which monarch larvae feed as they grow into butterflies. This effort will aid all pollinators, including bees whose numbers have plummeted along with the monarchs.
Monarchs are the official state insect of Texas.
Photo by Julie Vickers taken at the Pollinator Garden at the Sam Houston National Forest District Office
The I-35 corridor through Texas covers 600 miles. The number of migrating monarchs has fallen from an estimated 1 billion 20 years ago to about 60 million this year, although that number is likely lower after many died in a March snowstorm at the mountain forest in Mexico where they winter. The monarch is not considered endangered but the future of those that make the Canada –Mexico migration is precarious.
What can you do? Plant native milkweed and native flowers to help all pollinators.
Sources: Houston Chronicle and Washington Post
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Monarch-highway-8000538.php