Several times a year, the question of "How are the monarchs doing?" rises in my mind. An internet search typically ends up at Chip Taylor's blog on Monarch Watch. There you will find thoughtful commentary and deep analyses, a mixture of good news and bad news, as this extraordinarily resilient species faces ever greater challenges. In 2024, overwintering numbers in Mexico were the second lowest ever recorded, with 2013 having been the lowest. Chip's more recent posts tell of a rebound this summer, as this robust and prolific species has increased its numbers during its migration, following the growth of milkweed north in a tagteam of successional generations, spreading into all corners of the eastern U.S..
Part of that competitive fervor may have to do with the scarcity of pollinator plants. In a 4.5 acre field, there were only two small patches of mountain mint. Since forests don't supply summer nectar, meadows like this are where monarchs and other pollinators are going to find food and each other. Many meadows and roadsides are being taken over by mugwort, Chinese bushclover, and other invasive species with limited utility for pollinators. Add that threat to all the others: habitat loss, climate change, indiscriminate herbicide use in people's yards and along roadsides. This meadow is preserved, but that's really just the first step in realizing the meadow's potential as habitat that can help sustain species like our beloved Danaus plexippus, aka monarch butterfly.
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