Got Milkweed? Monarch Butterfly Restoration Project

[Mona Miller]

Yesterday a housing community of students got together through Facebook and had a milkweed planting event. What a great idea!

Got Milkweed? Monarch Butterfly Restoration Project
http://www.facebook.com/events/224670807619527/

This was an activity organized for University of California at Irvine (UCI) Arroyo Vista residents.
http://www.housing.uci.edu/av/
"Arroyo Vista offers an alternative to traditional residential hall living with 42 different Academic Theme, International, Transfer, and Greek Houses for undergraduate students. Arroyo Vista provides residents with an opportunity to experience cooperative living among other students who share a common interest in promoting a sense of community and scholarship."

[kristin10152001]

Thank you for sharing this! What a great idea, I am getting anxious to start some plants the weather is sooo warm in ohio right now it has me thinking spring already

[Paul Cherubini]

Yesterday a housing community of students got together through Facebook and had a milkweed planting event. What a great idea!

Got Milkweed? Monarch Butterfly Restoration Project
http://www.facebook.com/events/224670807619527/

This was an activity organized for University of California at Irvine (UCI) Arroyo Vista residents.
http://www.housing.uci.edu/av/"

Doesn't appear to me to be a native milkweed restoration project.

Instead it looks like some college students planted some easy to grow ornamental tropical (currassavica) milkweed seeds or bought some plants from the local nursery.

As I've mentioned before, neither the Xerces Society nor anyone else has provided the public with instructions for restoring native California milkweeds in habitats where they need to be restored; e.g. along roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures, etc. So without instructions, no significant restoration is going on in California to my knowledge.

[Mona Miller]

Paul Cherubini wrote: "As I've mentioned before, neither the Xerces Society nor anyone else has provided the public with instructions for restoring native California milkweeds in habitats where they need to be restored; e.g. along roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures, etc. So without instructions, no significant restoration is going on in California to my knowledge."

Your arguments are not valid. All the areas that you mentioned are maintained by public and private companies. The highway department is spraying herbicides and mowing due to fears of fire. The horse and cattle men don't want milkweed in their pastures because they fear the toxicity of the milkweed. Farm irrigation ditches, well there may be milkweed there on the edges, but these ditches are probably mowed so that water can travel down and through them to irrigate the fields.

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Xerces won't debate you Paul [well, you know how my debating goes with Paul]. Debates with Paul, if allowed to continue indefinitely could take years. Here's one on the Monarch Watch Forum that started on 9/16/2009, Paul's last post was 1/2/2012.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2020

I think the major problem is that Paul doesn't like the Xerces Society because of their stance on butterfly releases. So what does he do about his dislike, he cyberstalks [damages the reputation of their victim and turns other people against them] them whenever he gets a chance. Just like he cyberstalks all the other Monarch scientists.

I for one want to take this opportunity to thank the Xerces Society for all their hard work on butterfly conservation and the continued monitoring of Monarchs in California.
http://www.xerces.org/western-monarch-t ... ing-count/
Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count [Xerces Society manages these counts.]

There's loads more information on the Xerces Society website with regards to their work on establishing native milkweeds in California:

http://www.xerces.org/western-monarchs/
Western Monarch Overwintering Site Conservation

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/upload ... tsheet.pdf
Protecting Monarch Groves
[There's 5 points outlined on the second page that go into more depth about the Xerces Society's goals for Monarch sites in California.]

http://www.xerces.org/milkweed/
Increasing the availability of native milkweed

I know that the Xerces Society is right in there fighting along with other citizens who care about Monarch habitat.
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This exact email was posted to the Western Monarch listserv on 1/7/2012, yet Paul says he has no knowledge "no significant restoration is going on in California to my knowledge." Paul's must not be interested in knowing what the Xerces Society is doing.

[Paul Cherubini]

http://www.xerces.org/western-monarch-t ... ing-count/
Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count [Xerces Society manages these counts.]

There's loads more information on the Xerces Society website with regards to their work on establishing native milkweeds in California:

http://www.xerces.org/western-monarchs/
Western Monarch Overwintering Site Conservation

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/upload ... tsheet.pdf
Protecting Monarch Groves
[There's 5 points outlined on the second page that go into more depth about the Xerces Society's goals for Monarch sites in California.]

http://www.xerces.org/milkweed/
Increasing the availability of native milkweed

None of those links provides the public with instructions for growing native California milkweeds in the types of habitats where they need to be restored; e.g. along roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures, etc. So without instructions, the public will not be able to carry out significant restoration in California to my knowledge. And without such restoration, the overall biomass of milkweed in California will continue to decline, hence the size of the western monarch migratory population will continue to decline.

[Mona Miller]

There are sources all over the internet, all you have to do is search. People are not ignorant or stupid. What I see you doing all over the internet and on many listserv is complaining and trying to cause arguments. Often these arguments have to do with putting down scientists and conservation group.

It appears to me that you may suffer from some type of disorder because you don't give up your insane debating.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater
Krause's Half Mile Farm (posted to Monarch Watch Facebook page) Lovely picture of his son holding a milkweed plant.
"Grant helping plant the last of 1500+ homegrown native wildflower plugs on our Michigan property in October 2011. They included many common, whorled, butterfly, and sand milkweed.
Seeds for 2012 are stratifying now in the fridge for a May seeding in the plug flats. New milkweeds for us this year will include Tall Green Milkweed."

Someone asked how he prepares the milkweed seed for planting:

Krause's Half Mile Farm
Here is a simplified explanation. I stratify all my wildflower seeds for 30-120 days depending on species. Milkweeds go for 30-60. The seeds are placed in sealed ziplock bags with moistened silica sand from the hardware store and refrigerated until planting. In May the seeds are planted in 38 cell deep plug trays with potting soil (2-3 seeds per plug sand and all) and grown off to the side in my vegetable garden until Sept/Oct when they are planted on-site. From a seed conservation stand-point this is the best way to maximize success. After 5-6 months in the garden setting the plants have thick taproots and a great chance of success in the spring.

I will be documenting this process on our facebook page in more detail throughout the year. Feel free to friend us (not selling anything or spamming trust me)."

Check out Monarch Watch on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/monarchwatch
There are over 7,000 people on there.
Monarch Watch knows how to get things done.

[Paul Cherubini]

There are sources all over the internet, all you have to do is search. People are not ignorant or stupid. What I see you doing all over the internet and on many listserv is complaining and trying to cause arguments. Often these arguments have to do with putting down scientists and conservation group. It appears to me that you may suffer from some type of disorder because you don't give up your insane debating.

I'm unaware of any internet links that provide the public with instructions for growing native California milkweeds in the types of habitats where they need to be restored; e.g. along roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures, etc. So without instructions, the public will not be able to carry out significant restoration in California. And without mathematically significant restoration (the rate of successfully establishing new milkweed patches outpaces the rate of milkweed patch destruction), the overall biomass of milkweed in California will continue to decline, hence the size of the western monarch migratory population will continue to decline.

[Mona Miller]

Must I repeat this again. What you want is impossible:

"Your arguments are not valid. All the areas that you mentioned are maintained by public and private companies. The highway department is spraying herbicides and mowing due to fears of fire. The horse and cattle men don't want milkweed in their pastures because they fear the toxicity of the milkweed. Farm irrigation ditches, well there may be milkweed there on the edges, but these ditches are probably mowed so that water can travel down and through them to irrigate the fields.

[Paul Cherubini]

The highway department is spraying herbicides and mowing due to fears of fire. The horse and cattle men don't want milkweed in their pastures because they fear the toxicity of the milkweed. Farm irrigation ditches, well there may be milkweed there on the edges, but these ditches are probably mowed so that water can travel down and through them to irrigate the fields.

If all that is true then it validates my belief that mathematically significant milkweed restoration is NOT occuring in California along roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures, etc. - places where milkweed used to be abundant when western monarch populations were high. Thus in the absence of mathematically significant restoration (the rate of successfully establishing new milkweed patches outpaces the rate of milkweed patch destruction), in these types of habitats, the overall biomass of milkweed in California will continue to decline, hence the size of the western monarch migratory population will continue to decline.

[Mona Miller]

Habitat is being determined, restoration, and native milkweed seeds collected, propagated. You Mr. Cherubini refuse to have any knowledge of all the work being done by Monarch Watch and the Xerces Society, plus all the other scientists and conservation groups. You claim no knowledge, which seems very insane to me. This is being done in California, too.

http://monarchjointventure.org/projects.htm
Monarch Joint Venture
"Projects
Partners involved with the Monarch Joint Venture are engaged in a
diverse set of activities that support monarch habitat conservation,
maintenance and enhancement; education; and research and monitoring.
Habitat Conservation & Enhancement
Ensuring the availability of quality habitat is critical for the
conservation of any species. It is thought that monarch breeding
habitat has reduced in availability and quality in recent years, with
a reduced abundance of milkweed in the landscape in the eastern and
western U.S. Overwintering habitat for the western monarch population
is thought to be threatened by the impending senescence of the
even-aged eucalyptus stands that comprise most of the overwintering
groves.
MJV partners are engaged in work focused on improving habitat
availability and quality for both eastern and western monarch
populations."

[Paul Cherubini]

Habitat is being determined, restoration, and native milkweed seeds collected, propagated. You Mr. Cherubini refuse to have any knowledge of all the work being done by Monarch Watch and the Xerces Society, plus all the other scientists and conservation groups. You claim no knowledge, which seems very insane to me. This is being done in California, too.

We already know that prior to the 1990's, when western monarch populations were high, milkweed was more abundant in California along roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures, etc. than it is now. I'm not aware of any organization that has told us about actual case history examples of where they successfully stopped the destruction of milkweed patches along Calfornia's roadsides, railway lines, freeway cloverleafs, farm irrigation ditches, horse and cattle pastures or case history examples of where they restored milkweed patches in those same types of habitats. Thus without mathematically significant restoration (the rate of successfully establishing new milkweed patches outpaces the rate of milkweed patch destruction), the overall biomass of milkweed in California will continue to decline, hence the size of the western monarch migratory population will continue to decline.

[blazing star]

I agree with Paul. Not enough is being done to educate the public about the drastic decline of milkweed populations. I'm not sure how education can catch up with the swift shift (I can't always call it progress) in agricultural science.

The innovation of GMO herbicide resistant agricultural crops now lets farmers spray herbicide in a non- judicious manner; thereby killing any remnant milkweed crops. Therefore, the rapid loss of milkweed populations in at least 100 MILLION acres of row crops has been swift and, certainly, has not afforded the public the opportunity to be properly educated as to how to offset such catastrophic milkweed loss.

So far as this restoration project is concerned. I wish they were using a native variety of milkweed, but in light of the catastrophe we're faced with above, any restoration is better than no restoration.

Here's a link reporting the catastrophic loss of milkweed habitat cited by Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/scien ... wanted=all