For beginners, Lewis recommends buying plants as opposed to seeds - they’re more established and have a higher chance of survival.Visit a local nursery to pick up milkweed and other native plants, such as coneflowers and black-eyed Susans.
Here’s advice on how to do that, courtesy of Abigail Derby Lewis, conservation tools program director at the Field Museum. “Planting nectar sources for adult monarchs, too.” “One of the great things about monarchs is you can help out around your own home by planting milkweed,” Taron said. Severe weather brought on by climate change, plus drought and wildfires stymies the growth of milkweed - which female monarchs lay their eggs on, and which is the only plant monarch caterpillars can eat - or forces monarchs to migrate before milkweed is readily available, according to the conservation union and Taron. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago A monarch digs into a nectary snack at the Dunning-Read Conservation Area in Dunning on July 22, 2021. There’s an easy way Chicagoans can help: with a home garden. The endangered status is specifically for the migratory populations that journey across North America, said Doug Taron, the chief curator of Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and director of the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network.
The population has shrunk 22-72 percent over the past decade, experts said. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added monarch butterflies to its endangered list last week. CHICAGO - The migratory monarch butterfly has been listed as an endangered species - but there are simple ways Chicagoans can help from home.