LONDON: The declining number of migrating monarch butterflies prompted different organization across the state to work together in an effort to save the said species from extinction.
Advertisement
The Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium are now working with conservation organizations, agencies and companies in making sure that the monarch butterfly population is being watch out.
This is in response to the call of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish monarch conservation projects and plant 200,000 acres of milkweed across the country.
Advertisement
According to Brian Meyer, director of college relations in ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, they have been talking about the said campaign a year ago since they have been watching the decline of monarch butterfly decline for the last decade.
Among the cited causes of population decline are loss of monarch habitats through urbanization in the U.S. and Mexico and decline in milkweed and other plant resources through farming practices.
“This is a really iconic species not just for Iowa, but a large portion of the country,” he said. “We need to be aware that there are ways we can work together to bring some of this habitat back. It may be on farmlands or highways, or even individual gardens, but awareness is really the starting point.”
The ISU will be having a research that focuses on the possible ways of maintaining milkweed in the area where monarch butterflies thrive. ISU is already planting milkweed seedlings on research farms in the state, and planted 10,000 seeds for nine milkweed species last month.
Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology. In a...
