Calling all Monarch Butterfly Enthusiasts!

We Need You!

The status of the Monarch Butterfly population is not looking good. Drought in the Midwest, habitat loss at home, use of “Round-up Ready” seed crops, and deforestation in Mexico are taking their toll on Monarch butterflies. The population reaching Mexico this year is estimated to be the lowest ever recorded in their continued downward spiral. But we can help them! (We need to help them!)

Hope lies in the future generations: in the fact that each female can lay over 200 eggs and that everything changes, so at some point the drought through the midwest will end. Whatever population makes it through this difficult period – however many years it takes – will be the ones to rebuild the population to its once great numbers. But there must be milkweed and fall nectar plants (and good forest habitat in Mexico) to support them! Here in Loudoun (and other parts less effected by drought) we can play a big role in this relay of life that the Monarchs go through.

Our job is to make sure that healthy habitat exists so that the future generations have the best chance possible to bring back the magic.

In 2013 (just a few short weeks away!), Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy is kicking off a Monarch Butterfly campaign that will crisscross the County with educational programs, habitat restoration activities, native plant sales, artistic endeavors, blogging from the Monarch Sanctuaries in Mexico, and setting a challenge to raise and release more than 2,013 Monarch Butterflies in Loudoun this summer!

But we need your help to pull this off!

If you would like to be a part of the organizing committee for this campaign and/or participate in these activities, please email Nicole Hamilton at nhamilton@loudounwildlife.org. We’ll meet in early January to get things rolling. Please help keep this magic alive!