More Milkweed for Monarchs in Michigan

What’s on the menu for a monarch caterpillar? Just one plant. Monarchs depend on milkweed: It’s the only food source for caterpillars as they grow and develop, and it’s the only plant on which female monarch butterflies will lay their eggs.

Milkweed was once abundant across North America, but as development and heavy herbicide usage across the continent increased, the plant has experienced large losses. In part from this, monarch butterfly population numbers have drastically declined in recent years.

Recognizing this decline, people are stepping up to support monarchs by planting beneficial habitat in large cities, small towns, suburban neighborhoods, rural properties, and more. Monarch Watch’s Free Milkweed Programs offer an avenue for schools, educational non-profits, and those working on large-scale habitat restoration to receive flats of milkweed plugs free of charge.

One organization that received free milkweeds is the Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network (ISN) based in Traverse City, Michigan. For the past 10 years, staff and volunteers have been dedicated to restoring critical dunes on protected property along the shores of Lake Michigan.

The Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network has been working on restoring critical dunes along Lake Michigan for the past 10 years. In a recent project, they installed a sign alerting people to restoration efforts, which included planting milkweed. Credit: Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network.

“The protected areas are a valued asset for the community, drawing people in to a lesser-known area just south of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, while providing the same sandy and stunning experience of Lake Michigan that hundreds of thousands of people flock to see each year as part of northwestern lower-Michigan’s important tourism industry,” says ISN Habitat Management Specialist Luke Kreykes.

The increased traffic can bring with it the potential for harmful invasive and non-native species to gain a foothold, so ISN has worked to remove those plants and establish native species in their place. In 2025, ISN applied and received 128 milkweed plugs through Monarch Watch’s Free Milkweeds for Restoration Program to assist their habitat-restoration efforts. Five volunteers spent several hours last September removing invasive spotted knapweed from the dunes. They then transplanted native beach grasses from other areas of the beach and established the milkweed plugs (common milkweed and butterfly weed) across 4 acres.

ISN received 128 milkweed plugs through the Free Milkweeds Program to include in their habitat-restoration project. The photos above show before (left) and after (right) the milkweed plants were transplanted at the dunes. Credit: Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network.

“During our volunteer [workday] this past summer, we noticed a couple monarch caterpillars munching on the milkweed that we planted in 2024,” Kreykes says, “so this was especially fulfilling to be able to then apply our Free Milkweeds award plugs and bolster what we had started.”

Many other projects like ISN’s restoration work are happening around the country as people restore native habitat and provide monarchs more areas to support their life cycle. To date, Monarch Watch has distributed more than 1 million milkweed plants through the Free Milkweed Programs, and many more are needed to help bring back monarch populations. The generosity of Monarch Watchers makes this effort possible.

“ISN is incredibly thankful for those who donate to the Free Milkweeds [for Restoration] Program. It helps us keep costs down for partners and municipalities that may not have funds available for such projects but are very much interested in protecting such a special area for the community along with supporting monarch populations,” Kreykes says. “In addition to helping restore critical dune areas from invasive species, we also utilized this opportunity to empower volunteers with the knowledge and skills to bring this project home and hopefully make their own changes to their landscape to better support pollinators.”

Donations given during One Day One KU will help support the Free Milkweed Programs so people and organizations like ISN can continue on-the-ground efforts to provide monarchs with the milkweed they need to survive and thrive – and inspire others to do the same.

To learn more and donate, visit Monarch Watch’s One Day One KU landing page.