Planet in Peril: Preserving the Grace, Beauty and Magnificence of Monarchs

The monarch butterfly is among nature’s finest creations, one whose name perfectly matches its majesty. On the wings of its orange-black beauty comes powerful symbolism. Monarch butterflies are fluttering metaphors for change, renewal, hope and the interconnectedness of all life. Nothing is more transformational than the way a butterfly becomes a butterfly, beginning life’s journey as an earth-bound caterpillar whose slow-speed expeditions are focused on finding milkweed. Later, in its cocoon, as the butterfly prepares for a wholly new life, it becomes an enduring symbol of revival. Once airborne, it crosses continents on the way to an ancestral home it has never seen. The voyage is at once inspirational and mysterious, something not even science fully understands. Monarch butterflies are more than graceful messengers of regeneration and hope; they are also central to the design of our ecosystem. Like hummingbirds, butterflies pollinate a wide array of plants, from flowers to fruits. In recent years, their plight has become a signal that this ecosystem, our cycle of life, is in peril. Slowly, monarch butterflies are disappearing, leaving behind a wide breach in the natural order. Like the honeybee, the species is struggling to exist in a world of pesticides and the fields of genetically modified crops that fuel their use. In the mountains of central Mexico, where the monarchs have wintered for as long as anyone can remember, record low numbers of monarch butterflies are alighting from the skies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that since 1990, about 970 million monarchs have vanished. “Monarch butterflies once fluttered throughout the United States by the billions,” Washington Post reporter Darryl Fears has noted. “They arrived from Mexico to Canada each spring on a trek that required six generations of the insect to complete. Afterward, young monarchs, about a quarter of the weight of a dime, that know nothing about the flight pattern through the United States, not to mention Mexico, fly back, resting, birthing and dining on milkweed. Only about 30 million remain.” Farmers clearing land are a significant factor in the dramatic loss of milkweed plants available for monarchs. The plants are essentially a monarch butterfly’s nursery, food source and home. Biofuel subsidies and greater demand for corn have incentivized the planting of the profitable crop on every available acre in some regions, crowding out native plants such as milkweed. Pesticides have also been a factor in milkweed’s demise. One recent study showed that in Iowa, up to 90 percent of native milkweed has disappeared. National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara told the Post: “This is one of those keystone species. These are things that don’t make headlines, but they are indicators that something bigger is happening.” The monarch seems to be following an arc to extinction that has been observed with other butterfly species. As Fears reports: “The blueberry-colored Xerces blue disappeared from San Francisco years ago, and recently [the federal government] announced that two subspecies — the rockland skipper and Zestos in South Florida — haven’t been seen since 2004 and are probably extinct. On top of that, pesticide use has also caused a collapse of other pollinators — wasps, beetles and especially honeybees.”