Ottawa’s monarch butterfly suffers huge decline due to eradication of milkweed

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HARROW: When Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosts the Three Amigos summit this spring, he and the leaders of the U.S. and Mexico will focus on a monarch other than the Queen.
Last year, when they met in Mexico, the leaders of the three North American countries commissioned a task force to report back at the 2015 summit in Canada about the alarming state of the monarch butterfly. It’s none too soon, frankly.
The monarch, which is on Ottawa’s species-at-risk list, is suffering a huge decline due to the eradication of milkweed, which its caterpillars feed on, as well as from pesticides, illicit logging in Mexico and climate change.
The World Wildlife Fund Canada’s 2013-14 report from Mexico revealed the fewest number of monarchs overwintering in that country in the past two decades. University of Chicago monarch butterfly specialist Marcus Kronforst told the media that in 1996, one billion monarchs made the annual migration to Mexico, but last year, only 35 million flew south.
Many monarchs are captured, tagged and released in the U.S. and Canada so data can be collected on their migratory habits. Anyone who spots a dead monarch with a wing tag then reports the find. According to monarchwatch. org,: “The purpose of the tagging is to … determine the pathways taken by migrating monarchs, the influence of weather on the migration, the survival rate of the monarchs, etc.”