Saving the Migration – A Newsy Documentary

The annual migration of the monarch butterfly is one of the great wonders of nature and contains as many mysteries as it does marvels.

Every fall, monarchs migrate across the continent in advance of the cold winter months. Those east of the Rocky Mountains fly to Mexico where they cluster by the millions in the Oyamel fir forests: a mere 12 mountaintop sanctuaries that shelter the overwintering monarchs.

  A recently published analysis of data on tagged monarch butterflies migrating from the United States to Mexico emphasizes the…

Milkweed loss in agricultural fields because of herbicide use: effect on the monarch butterfly population Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus L….

Recently there have been a number of articles in the press about how people are planting the wrong kind of milkweed and that it’s actually harming monarch butterflies. Inflammatory headlines have warned about how well intentioned people may actually be “destroying” monarchs and how “the plan to save monarchs” by planting milkweed has “backfired.”

Well, I’m here to tell you that there is no need to freak out. And Please, KEEP PLANTING MILKWEED! Here’s why.

Today, a coalition of more than 125 conservation, beekeeping, food safety, religious and farming advocacy groups rallied in front of the White House and delivered more than four million petition signatures calling on the Obama administration to put forth strong protections for bees and other pollinators.

The rally coincided with both a D.C. metro ad campaign, and Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and John Conyers’ (D-MI) reintroduction of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act…

We welcome America’s rural and urban communities, faith-based communities, college and university campuses, community gardens and botanical gardens, as well as non-profits of all kinds to join us in a day of action and contemplation for imperiled pollinators from…

Renowned NASA climate scientist Dr. Jim Hansen often opens his public lectures with a discussion of the monarch butterfly migration. He has helped his grandchildren raise milkweed on their farm and for years they have followed the life cycle of monarchs through to fall migration.

The Hansen youth have also been involved as “citizen scientists” participating in tagging the migrating monarchs.

This last year, tens of thousands of children across the Midwest watched IMAX film Flight of the Butterflies on the…

Data released today show that more monarch butterflies were counted at overwintering sites in California this year compared to last…

Monarch butterflies are — quite literally — a force of nature. They strike out each year by the thousands on a four-generation, 3,000-mile-long journey of pure instinct and faith.

They use both inherent and imprinted knowledge. They use subterfuge, placing their eggs on a plant that feeds their young caterpillars, but makes them poisonous and distasteful to predators. They use natural GPS.

For more than a decade, Margaret McRae has raised monarch butterflies in her east-end Toronto home. Every two years she applies for permission from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, then scans the milkweed that grows plentifully in her gardens.

When she finds a leaf bearing an egg, she brings it inside to protect it from parasites. Within four days, she has a monarch caterpillar, covered in white, black, and yellow stripes.

We know monarch numbers have declined drastically in recent years. Estimates are down by 80 to 90% from a population size of about one billion in the early 1990s.

It’s long been thought that the big reason behind this is the loss of milkweed throughout the farming regions of the U.S. Midwest.

“This changes everything”–the line that Donald Trump stole from Naomi Klein (who referred to climate change, not emails) can only be authentically used in relation to one amazing news story this week: The front page Sunday NY Times article by Danny Hakim “Doubts About a Promised Bounty: Genetically Modified Crops Have Failed to Lift Yields and Ease Pesticide Use.”

Yesterday, the First Lady welcomed local students and FoodCorps leaders on the South Lawn for the sixth-annual planting of the White House Kitchen Garden.

The garden was first planted in 2009 to commence a nationwide conversation on healthy eating and inspired the First Lady to launch Let’s Move!

These are tough times for soybean farmers. As President Trump’s trade war with China drags on, retaliatory tariffs are clobbering soybean prices—and some farmers are selling their crops at a loss.

The federal government has stepped up to help: At the urging of Midwestern senators, the USDA is compensating farmers for some of their losses, shelling out $3.6 billion to soybean farmers so far. While the subsidy is appreciated, many soy farmers I’ve talked to see it as a politically motivated handout that won’t help them in the long run. They would rather work toward lasting solutions than accept a quick fix.