We have all heard of an elephant corridor, or at least we know the person talking about them isn’t completely nuts. But something that may still get a weird look is the idea of a highway for the Monarch Butterfly.
These are amazing insects that every year take on a massive migration that can be as far as from Canada to southern Mexico. What makes this incredible journey even more astounding is for the butterflies that do make this arduous journey, it’s a one way trip. When they reach their destination they overwinter then lay their eggs and die, leaving the next generation to complete the journey home. No one has yet figured out how the butterflies have mastered the navigation skills needed to complete a migration this long and use the same routes year after year despite being different generations.
Unfortunately over the last two decades, a plant called milkweed has been declining in the United States due to pesticide use in farming. Monarch caterpillars exclusively eat milkweed and the U.S fish and wildlife services have estimated the since 1990 a loss of nearly a billion Monarchs have occurred due to a direct result of the loss of milkweed in the migratory journey.
But a recent U.S national strategy has the government creating ‘butterfly corridor’. This corridor will stretch from Minnesota to Mexico; this corridor will mirror the Interstate 35. This ‘corridor’ will not only help Monarchs but also help out other native pollinators such as bee’s and other insects over the 1,500 miles in which the butterflies regularly migrate over. The Government is planning to protect around 7 million acres of habitat along the route as well as start an education programme targeting the farmers and land owners adjacent to the project about the Monarchs blight.
Sending critically endangered butterflies down an interstate doesn’t sound like a great plan with all the exhaust fumes, but the sides of road are actually ideal pollinator habitats with low vegetation height allowing for wildflowers and they stretch for considerable uninterrupted distances. With the government putting aside 3.2 million dollars specifically for the protection and needs of the monarchs the hope that the population will get a much needed boost from 50 million bugs to 225 million butterflies by 2020.
Fingers crossed then!