Planning is underway in northwest Missouri for efforts to make one state highway a life-line for the Monarch butterfly population.
The Missouri Department of Transportation is working as part of a recent multi-state agreement to establish the I-35 corridor as the Monarch Highway. Marty Liles if the District Maintenance & Traffic Engineers for MoDOT’s northwest district. Liles said MoDOT is looking into getting volunteer groups to help increase pollination plants and awareness for Monarchs and honey bees.
“We have land and some of the land would be very good for establishing milkweeds and wildflowers and things that would allow some pollination,” Liles said. “We’re looking at seeing if we can get groups to go out and identify locations, kind of like adopt-a-highway.”
David Laderoute with Missouri for Monarchs Naturalists & Gardeners NW Missouri said there are many factors that have contributed to a huge decrease in the Monarch population.
“In the United States the biggest problems are loss of habitat. Every time a subdivision is built it takes away some fields that were an area where milkweed might be growing then there’s loss of habitat,” Laderoute said.
He said there are also issues with farmers using certain weed killers and pesticides and how close together fields are being planted nowadays. He said there are also issues with illegal logging in Mexico that have contributed to a huge drop in the butterfly population. Missourian’s for Monarchs has been working to increase habitats around the area. Laderoute said they are excited about the possibility of working with MoDOT.
“Our group assists to the extent we can MoDOT and that would basically be planting and maintenance,” Laderoute said. “Coming up with an initial demonstration plot. If we do that we can draw attention to it and then we can go from there.”
Even though I-35 is the area being deemed the Monarch Highway, Laderoute said habitat efforts can extend for many miles away from it.
“I-35 is about 40 miles east of St. Joe but because anything you do is considered within the Monarch highway is within that 200 mile band we could actually do something closer to St. Joe,” Laderoute said.
A meeting to talk about habitat efforts along the state highway will be held Aug. 18 at the Missouri Department of Conservation located at 701 James McCarthy Dr. in St. Joseph at 6:30 p.m. Mary Liles will present information on Monarch Highway efforts. Laderoute said the meeting is open to the public.
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