Milkweed project aims to restore Iowa butterfly habitat

CEDAR RAPIDS - More than 55,000 milkweed plants will soon be growing in Cedar Rapids and Linn County as part of a massive effort to restore critical habitat for monarch butterflies.

In what's called the Great Milkweed Giveaway, at least half will be provided at no cost to people who want to help ensure the future of America's most beloved butterfly.

'We want to get the plants in the ground as soon as possible so they can benefit the butterflies right away this summer,” said Clark McLeod, co-founder of the not-for-profit Monarch Research Project, which is providing the plants in partnership with Monarch Watch, the nation's leading monarch conservation group.

McLeod said 30,000 plants will be provided by University of Kansas-based Monarch Watch, with the remainder coming from private growers in Cedar Rapids and Pennsylvania.

The giveaway dovetails with the Monarch Research Group's Monarch Zones project in which about 60 Cedar Rapids-area participants this year will raise monarchs in protected environments and release them in time for the annual fall migration to the butterflies' wintering area in Mexico.

It also dovetails with the recently announced Thousand Acre Plan, in which the city of Cedar Rapids, Linn County and other local entities have committed to convert underused public property - mostly regularly mowed and sprayed lawns - into habitat for monarchs and other pollinating insects.

'It's all part of a comprehensive plan to make Cedar Rapids a hub of monarch production and pollinator habitat and to make this area an example for other communities to follow,” McLeod said.

While the local effort will be valuable in and of itself, 'it's going to take a widespread concerted effort - a movement, if you will - to bring monarchs and other pollinators back to sustainable levels,” he said.

McLeod estimated that about half the 55,000 milkweed plants will be used in the designated Monarch Zones, with the remainder available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

The first giveaway installment was set to take place Saturday at Monarch Fest at the Indian Creek Nature Center. More than 1,000 plants were to be given away to visitors in celebration of Mayor Ron Corbett's signing of a pledge to support monarchs and all pollinators.

People interested in planting milkweed can sign up for free plants on the Monarch Research Project's website at monarchzones.com.

The free plants come with few strings attached. Participants are expected to plant and care for the milkweed, to minimize or eschew the use of pesticides and to tell others about their experience.

'We hope some of them will become monarch zones next year,” McLeod said.

In addition to the milkweed - the only plant on which monarchs lay their eggs, the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat - the research group has also secured about 5,000 tropical plants that will provide nectar, butterflies' principal food, along with 10,500 parsley plants, and 1,500 dill and fennel plants, critical vegetation in the life cycle of the black swallowtail butterfly.

McLeod said the group expects to have enough milkweed to provide at least some to all applicants.

'Each milkweed plant is capable of producing at least one monarch butterfly, and the plants will come back year after year,” he said.

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, which is seeking grants to fund the 1,000 acre plan, is also collecting private 'sponsor an acre” donations ranging from $250 to $1,000 per acre. Donations can be sent to the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, 324 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids 52401 or can be made online at www.gcrcf.org