But now we're told this wonder of the planet might be coming to an end. How could this possibly occu...

1. ​Planting a future for monarch butterflies
But now we're told this wonder of the planet might be coming to an end. How could this possibly
occur?
Flowers well-known amongst Monarch butterflies are purple cone flowers (best left), asters (top
appropriate), vervains (bottom left), and milkweed (bottom appropriate).
Discover a nursery that sells the native plants that grow exactly where you live, and get a variety of
species that take turns blooming from April all the way by means of October.
That's a lot. Exactly where corn and beans after grew, I planted tall, native grasses and wildflowers.
Amongst region farmers, this was noticed as nothing at all quick of scandalous.
With more acreage than ever planted to crops they cannot eat, plus insecticide sprayed with
abandon, it's no wonder the Monarchs have been flying steadily downhill.
Come springtime, we can all embrace native plants. Believe how beautiful your home, workplace,
school or garden would look with purple coneflower and asters, vervain and black-eyed Susans. And
above all, believe milkweed. That is the one plant that Monarch babies just can not reside without.
And for a couple of moments at least, I felt like I was five years old, and in heaven.
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"Must be good to be in a position to leave money on the ground like that," one farmer told me. "What
a WASTE."
Monarch butterflies cover each and every inch of a tree in Sierra Chincua, Mexico.
Though the new plantings helped stabilize the soil in steep regions the previous owners must have

2. by no means have plowed in the 1st place, I took some heat for my small "prairie patches."
If only he knew what I truly had in thoughts ... butterflies!
And if we do not handle to save the a single insect we so adore? Now THAT will actually be the
largest waste of all.
I have a confession to make.
A modest campaign to preserve a colorful but fragile creature is taking flight -- tight in photographer
Joel Sartore's back yard:
26 Photographs
Joel Sartore
Joel Sartore
It's not terribly challenging to figure out, really. Monarchs only spend the winter in Mexico then in
March, they commence their yearly migration northward. They glide correct up the center of our
continent, where they require a lot of nectar-bearing plants to feed on, and specifically milkweed to
lay their eggs.
When the sun ultimately came up, millions of brilliant orange spots burst from the trees, rising and
falling and swirling about me like a wonderful living blizzard.
But of course there is hope.

3. Monarch butterflies
National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore on the lovely insects that face the threat of
extinction
You see, a handful of years ago I'd had a
close to-religious experience on a
mountaintop in central Mexico. I'd arrived
prior to dawn, on a rented mule. There,
standing silently in the mist, were ancient fir
trees so laden with Monarch butterflies their
bows literally bent beneath the weight. Can
you even picture how numerous butterflies it
requires to make a tree branch sag?
A couple of years ago, on a farm I own in
eastern Nebraska, I took 44 acres out of
production, on purpose.
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