By Emmy Ulmschneider
Master Gardener
From September 12 to October 6, 2021, Master Gardeners did a series on creating habitat and the importance of native plants culminating in the importance of native plants to our migrating Monarch butterfly. In 2022 and 2023, we continued this trend describing our local prairie and featuring profiles of our area’s native plants that support our native birds and butterflies. But now more than ever it is time to focus on what Bill Neiman, co-founder of Native American Seed company in Junction, Texas, calls Responsible Beauty.
And that is exactly what our iconic Monarch butterfly needs. I have been tagging and following Monarch migration since the mid 1990’s. Migrating Monarchs funnel through Texas on their way north to their breeding grounds and south to their overwintering grounds in Mexico. So, what we do here matters.
The Monarch migration is multigenerational: The Monarch that leaves Mexico in the spring is not the same one that returns in the fall. The second and third generations nectar and breed as they travel through Texas into their spring and summer breeding area across the Great Plains, the eastern United States and into southern Canada. In the late summer, the Monarchs start their epic journey back to Mexico. During this southern migration Generation Four and sometimes Five are in diapause which means that they do not breed and are metabolically different from the other generations. This Fourth or Fifth generation then overwinters in Mexico and starts the return journey in the spring, back up through Texas. Texas is a pivotal key to Monarch survival!
We measure the numbers of migrating Monarchs by the area they occupy in the oxymel fir forests of the Sierra Madre Mountain in Mexico. In 1976, early researchers estimated that the Monarchs occupied an area over 20 hectares, a hectare being about the size of two football fields. Since the 1990’s, researchers have measured their overwintering roosting area. Researchers estimate that a Monarch population covering six hectares is sustainable. In the 2022-23 winter, it was 2.1 hectares; last winter, 2023-2024, it was 0.9 hectares. A Monarch population size covering six hectares has only been reached once in the last decade. To see this data, understand what threatens Monarchs, and what can be done to help see: https://monarchjointventure.org/blog/eastern-monarch-butterfly-population-falls-to-less-than-one-hectare-in-the-2023-2024-overwintering-season
This is a daunting task. But Texans have been here before. Our American bison population shrank from over sixty million in the late 18th century, to just 541 animals by 1889. Fortunately, two Texans, Charles and Martha Goodnight stepped in and brought seven animals to the JA Ranch. Those animals eventually became the start of the Texas bison herd at Caprock Canyons. Their genes are carried in virtually all the remaining bison herds in the United States.
To bring back the Monarch from the brink of extinction will take a mind shift in thinking to recognize that we are not apart or separate from Nature but a part of it. Even in a tiny part of our yards, we can recognize the beauty, the quiet power of nature and, in the words of Bill Neiman, “Plant Responsibly.”
If you have questions, call the AgriLife office in Odessa at 498-4071 or in Midland at 686-4700. Additional information, and our blog for access to past articles, is available at westtexasgardening.org. Click on “Resources.”
