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Wednesday, May 9, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Understanding the plight of the western monarch butterfly
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
With all the traffic rolling
into the Sisters Middle School
parking area last Saturday, one
would have thought school
was in session. What was
really going on was a meeting
of butterfly people on the wel-
fare of the monarch butterfly
and other pollinators.
More than 100 people
attended, some from as far
away as Seattle, Boise, and
Northern California.
The idea of a monarch
butterfly conference was the
brainchild of local author
Jean Nave and Sisters Middle
School teacher Susie Werts,
who worked with students on
producing the book “Journey’s
Flight,” which chronicled the
travels of a monarch butter-
fly raised by the students and
released with an identifying
tag in September of 2016.
The butterfly made an epic
record-setting trip all the way
to Southern California.
At Saturday’s confer-
ence, monarch groups from
all over the Northwest pre-
sented their recovery projects
and results. Area government
agencies including the Bureau
of Land Management, the
Forest Service, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and Monarch
Advocates of Central Oregon
(MACO) have been active in
planting hundreds of milk-
weed seedlings and creat-
ing monarch waystations,
which include both host and
nectar plants for the at-risk
butterflies.
Many local volunteer
groups have participated in
these planting events, includ-
ing Friends and Neighbors of
Deschutes Canyon (FANS);
Great Old Broads for
Wilderness; Soul River, Inc.
and agency personnel.
The three-hour discussion
explored results of conserva-
tion efforts to date and allowed
for brainstorming ideas for
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future monitoring, mainte-
nance, reporting, rearing, tag-
ging and education programs.
Keynote speaker Dr. David
James, an entomology profes-
sor from Washington State
University, presented his
work. Dr. James began a mon-
arch rearing and tagging proj-
ect at Walla Walla Penitentiary
that has been popular with the
inmates as well as providing
valuable information on mon-
arch movements. He also leads
a citizen-scientist-operated
tagging program for both wild
and hand-reared monarchs.
Professor James introduced
statistics that revealed why the
USF&WS has been entertain-
ing the idea of placing the
butterfly on the Endangered
Species List. He doesn’t think
this would happen, in spite of
current data demonstrating the
dangerous drop in numbers of
monarchs wintering in Mexico
and on the preserves along
the west coast of Southern
California. One graph showed
nearly a billion monarchs in
the U.S. in 1997; by 2016 the
numbers had dropped to only
33 million.
He stated that the drop
in the butterfly’s food plant,
milkweed, and food for nectar-
ing during migration were the
major reasons for the dramatic
decline in monarch popula-
tions. In addition to food short-
age, severe storms impacting
survival of larva, lack of shade
and roost trees, and GMO
food crops and the use of pes-
ticides in both commercial
agricultural and private plant
production areas, have all had
a significant negative effect on
monarch survival, as well as
the use of deadly neoniciten-
oid insecticides.
The tagging operation is
well underway with both wild
and artificially raised mon-
archs, and has already revealed
some strange paths that some
monarchs have taken. One
wayward monarch made a
one-way 439-mile trip from
the California coast to interior
Idaho, which was completely
out of the norm.
The big message Dr. James
left with everyone at the con-
ference is that the principle
way we can help monarch
recovery projects is to grow
locally sourced milkweed.
Free seed packets were avail-
able for conference attendees
to take home.
Werts wrapped up the
conference with a recap of
her project and how using a
threatened insect and hands-
on purposeful
gardening
enhanced
the reading
and writ-
ing skills
of her
students
PHOTO BY SUE ANDERSON
Rhiannon & Annabella James checking out a bigger-than-life-size Monarch caterpillar.
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and brought the Sisters com-
munity together for a remark-
able endeavor.
In the spirit of the mon-
arch-related projects the City
of Sisters recently approved
a new pollinator park, not far
from the post office. It will
occupy a key role in provid-
ing host and nectar plants for
pollinators, especially the
monarch. The half-acre parcel
will have educational mate-
rial to inform visitors and
residents of the importance of
these often-neglected insects
to healthy ecosystems. Forms
to submit a name for the park
are available at City Hall and
Sisters Middle School.
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