Missourians for Monarchs
by Renee Benage
Missourians for Monarchs is a collaborative of conservation and agricultural organizations, government and non-government agencies, utilities, agribusinesses, and citizens committed to monarch and pollinator conservation. One of their goals is to increase pollinator habitat in Missouri by 385,000 acres (19,000 acres per year) of additional pollinator habitat with 200 milkweed stems per acre over the next 20 years. This objective is in concert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 20-year national plan to develop 7 million acres of habitat with 1.25- 1.5 billion milkweed stems.
Earlier this year, Missourians for Monarchs requested volunteers for surveying milkweed in the area, so I signed up. In July I received my packet that included my assignment to a 73- acre area in Columbia Bottom Conservation Area , as well as specific directions for how to do the monitoring. For sites 5 acres or larger we were to determine a path (transect) to walk, stop every 10 paces and mark a 1m x 1m sampling plot, and count the milkweed stems in each plot. Because of the size of the area, 150 samples were required to be statistically significant. When I realized how much was required of this project - I reached out to my friend, Nan Johnson, for help. I made a PVC meter square, so we didn't have to measure each plot. Nan and I set out on August 11th to find our plot via GPS and make and record all of our observations. Out of 150 samples, only one had any milkweed at all. We kept track of each plot - how much milkweed we saw (lots of zeros!) as well as any other forbs we could identify (lots of ragweed). All of this data was loaded to their data collection site.
We are looking forward to information about next steps for this project. For more information check out https://moformonarchs.org/.