Efforts to save the monarch butterfly in Iowa may be starting to pay off. A report from the World Wildlife Fund finds monarchs overwintering in Mexico covered about 15 acres of forest canopy, twice the previous year’s population and a level not seen in a decade. Steve Bradbury, a professor of natural resource ecology and management at Iowa State University, says it’s excellent news.
*
While the population rebound is a big plus, Bradbury says consistent long-term gains rely on advancing conservation efforts that are critical to help monarchs survive and reproduce in Iowa and the Upper Midwest.
*
The Iowa Monarch Conservation Strategy aims to maintain a yearly population of 225-million adult monarchs, or roughly that 15 acres of forest canopy. About 40-percent of all monarchs that overwinter in Mexico are estimated to come from Iowa and neighboring Midwestern states. Bradbury says expanding monarch habitat in Iowa will play a major role in the recovery of the species.