There was a big patch of native sunflowers woodland sunflowers down
below the hill here from the house and I could see butterflies all over the flowers.
I walked down to see what kind of butterflies it was and it was
hundreds of monarchs. I was standing down there in five-foot tall flowers
with monarchs flooding all around me, landing on my hand, landing on my head.
Totally, they didn't even know I existed. It was like magic.
The migration of the monarch butterfly is one of nature's greatest wonders.
Every spring millions of monarchs leave their wintering grounds in Mexico and
migrate north, stopping in the southern U.S. to lay eggs on their milkweed host plant,
and create new generations that spread deeper into America and Canada.
Unfortunately, monarch populations have declined significantly over the past two decades.
Primarily due to habitat loss
[Instrumental music]
Arkansas is very important in the migration of monarchs. We have monarchs
migrating both the spring and the fall. Monarchs will only lay their eggs on milkweed,
so having milkweed available is critical. The more milkweed we have on the landscape,
the more butterflies we can produce, and hopefully by producing more
butterflies, we reverse that decline in population trend.
The monarch conservation partnership is a group of private organizations,
government agencies, landowners municipalities, and other interested people who have come
together because they're passionate about the conservation of monarchs in Arkansas
There's a limited amount of habitat
that's available on public lands, on wildlife management areas and refuges
and with 85 or so percent of the land and private ownership, it's extremely
important that we reach out the private land owners to help them conserve
habitat for species. During the past three years over 600 acres of habitat
for monarch butterflies and other pollinators has been created through the
partner Fish and Wildlife and other private lands programs in Arkansas.
I brought my love for conservation to this ranch from the time we came here
we started working doing what we could to preserve the environment that was here.
We have put in 40 acres through the partners for Fish & Wildlife
we just now are beginning to see some of the results of that but we're hoping
that that will bring a lot of the pollinators back in, especially the monarchs.
If you take cows by themselves
they don't do as well if you've got cows and you've goats. You've got to have other species
and that includes the butterflies because they're they're pollinating.
We begin to look at the monarch butterfly populations which had dropped by 80%.
The city all along our public right of ways our highways and our berms in our
boulevards and our trails along our sidewalks, we begin to plant milkweed
to give the monarch butterflies food to eat and nourishment as they they travel.
Roadsides can provide linear refuges for pollinators supporting a diverse array
of nectar sources and connecting habitat fragments. Because wildflowers
don't always look attractive, particularly before and after they bloom,
it's important that we alter our perception of what an attractive roadside looks like,
and understand that native vegetation provides pollinator habitat
in various seasons and contributes to Arkansas's image as the natural state.
[Upbeat instrumental music]
There's nothing more magical than those monarchs flitting around you.
For my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, their great-grandchildren
to be able to enjoy monarchs is a dream of mine.
There has never been a more critical time to help Arkansas's monarch
butterflies a colossal amount of habitat restoration is needed to reverse the
steep population decline of this migrating marvel and the task truly
requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to learn how you can help please visit
the Arkansas monarch conservation partnerships website at
arkansasmonarchs.org There are many ways to get involved and everyone can have an impact.
you