This is a sign of summer for
so many of us in the Northeast.
The vibrant orange,
white and black monarch butterflies.
They migrate from Mexico up
here to the United States and
they're in trouble now today.
The International Union for
Conservation of Nature placed the
insect on its endangered species list.
Some of our viewers might be
familiar with the eastern Monarch
Butterfly farm and clearance.
The organization is dedicated to
increasing the insects population,
raising and releasing them here in
Western New York and their work.
Only got more important with
this announcement today.
But if
the monarchs disappear,
that's just psychologically damaging.
I believe because you probably
read the little hungry Caterpillar.
Everybody has. It's a.
It's a cool book and you'd
hate to see something like
that disappear in our lifetime.
So my main thing is yes,
there's other pollinators.
There's other butterflies,
but this is like America's butterfly.
And if you can't.
Save or conserve the things you love.
Soon you're going to lose
the things you need to do to
survive as a human species.
To help us discuss this iconic
American butterfly as he put it,
is one of our friends from north of
the border on the Canadian side,
Jessica Bond is the site manager at the
Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory,
which is a great place to visit.
Thanks so much for taking some time for us,
and I wonder, you know,
almost all of us here in the United
States and also there in Canada
where you are pretty familiar
with these monarch butterflies.
It's not some exotic species that lives in,
like a faraway rainforest,
so it surprised a lot of people
when they read this news today.
That this has been put on this end.
Injured list what should we know about this?
And I guess just maybe start with like
your reaction when you heard this today.
It's it probably didn't catch
you by surprise, right?
Well
firstly, thank you for having me.
And no, it's been something in our company.
We've been monitoring for quite a while.
So with the Niagara Parks,
we've really been promoting our
stewardship in terms of preserving and
protecting our natural environment.
So we've been setting up pollinator gardens,
Prairie legacy gardens,
and normal areas for the past
decade in preparation for this
and trying to hope that we can
preserve some of these monarchs
when we talk about why this is happening,
people immediately think climate change
chemicals in the atmosphere in nature.
What do you think is?
Is the biggest culprit here and
and the biggest threat that
monarchs are facing going forward.
So there are three main culprits.
First is lack of food supply.
Next is habitat and then the third
will be climate with lack of food
supply the monarch butterfly.
The Caterpillar itself has
what is called a host plant,
which is the sloppiest or milkweed.
It's considered a noxious weed,
so many people are removing it,
so again, their food supply is
limited in terms of habitat,
their habitat is a Prairie kind of Meadow,
like garden.
Again, we're losing a lot of that,
and the migrating monarchs they're
traveling to Mexico and to California.
So deforestation.
And as well as urbanization
are causing their habitat to
diminish and then climate,
extreme weather damages habitat
their food as well as they can't
tolerate that type of climate.
So Jessica, when we talk about this being
placed on this endangered species list,
sure there's a reason for that, right?
It's based purely on the numbers.
What do we know about how many
of these types of butterflies we
believe are are here right now?
And, you know, we were talking earlier
today about how many more of them there
were just a couple of decades ago?
Yes, well if you go on the IUCN website,
they're seeing anywhere from 70 to 90%.
It depends on the species,
so there's a western.
There's an eastern,
there's the ones that migrate,
so roughly 70% or more over the past
decade we've lost in population.
Well, and we're talking about.
We used to have millions and
now far fewer than that.
Yes, well it's incredible.
Tell us a little bit about for people here.
I mean so many of us you know cross
the border all the time and and
and many of our viewers watching
will have been to the Niagara
Parks Butterfly Conservatory.
But what is it that people can look
forward to there and and how do you?
What do you see as your role in in helping?
Not just the monarch butterfly
but preserving all these species?
Well, a major part of our role is not only
is it Butterfly Conservatory located here,
we also sit in the botanical gardens.
So again, we're really.
Our mandate is to preserve and
protect our natural environment.
So we want to educate the guests.
Again, we have a legacy Prairie
Garden made for the monarch butterfly
butterflies and the swallow tails.
Education being our number one focus in
terms of even the butterflies we import.
Knowing that they aren't from this area,
we need to protect this
area from those species.
So educating about the native and
preserving the natural as well
as some of the exotic speaker.
It's been really interesting to follow
the reaction to this news today because
people really have a a connection
with these types of butterflies.
You know you see them,
and to know that they are now.
You know on this endangered list.
I think killed a lot of people
off guard and and caused a lot
of discomfort with that news.
Jessica Bond is the site manager at the
Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory.
Thanks so much for sharing your
expertise with us and your insight.
Thank you very much.