Nature foundation unveils $3.3M in monarch butterfly grants

The 22 grants that the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced, would be matched by over $6.7 million from the recipients, in over a dozen states and among 115 applicants for finances in the conservation effort that was launched earlier this year.

The popular black and orange butterflies have seen their numbers drastically reduced from a billion 20 years ago, to fewer than 60 million today. She further said that the grants are going to help fund projects on-the-ground which are going to contribute quickly to a more sustainable and healthier population of monarchs. Monarch butterflies, which migrate up to 3,0000 miles from Mexico north to the US and Canada and back again, depend not only on nectar-producing plants throughout their range, but also milkweed – the primary food source for monarch caterpillars. To protect the dwindling monarch butterfly population, the NFWF launched the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund in an effort to promote the protection of the butterflies’ habitats.

“Our belief is that agriculture plays a critical role in conservation”, explains Phil Miller, who is the vice president of global government and regulatory affairs for Monsanto.

“These important investments by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and its partners also support the long-term objectives of the Service’s Monarch Conservation Strategy”, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. “We believe that environmental sustainability, as well as increased land productivity are two compatible objectives”, he continued, and “we are committed to staying the course and being a partner in this to see the monarch butterfly rebound”.

Have monarch butterflies been decimated? “To feed a growing population, we need to use all of the management practices available to increase agricultural productivity and make more land available for monarchs, bees, birds and other wildlife”. Monsanto, maker of the herbicide Roundup that environmentalists are blaming for much of the loss of monarch butterflies’ habitat, has pitched in $1.2 million of grant money. “We look forward to assisting in building a more secure future for these elegant and valuable butterflies”.

But for most Americans, “milkweed” is just that: a weed.