An initiative to protect monarch butterflies, bumblebees and other insect pollinators will funnel nearly $200,000 to regional projects undertaken by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, based in Fox Chapel.
The two grants are part of $1.7 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and $5 million total in public and private funding in 11 states to increase the quality and quantity of more than 32,000 acres of pollinator habitat for monarch butterflies, rusty patched bumblebees and other native pollinators. Nationwide, the money will be used to collect hundreds of pounds of milkweed seeds, plant 19,000 milkweed seedlings and raise public awareness with workshops and meetings focused on pollinator conservation.
Sarah Koenig, coordinator of the project for the Audubon Society chapter, said butterflies and bees are more than pretty natural attractions.
“We need pollinators to survive,” she said. “Pollinating insects are considered ‘keystone species.’ They impact everything around them. They are really one of the foundations of our ecosystem. They pollinate the plants that other pollinators eat, the plants that we eat, the plants that support everything else we eat. Without the transfer of pollen among plants, they can’t grow and without plants we can’t live.”
Habitat loss, modern farming practices, herbicide use and other environmental factors threaten pollinator species, including those targeted in the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grants. Ms. Koenig is managing regional projects funded by the two grants.
A $99,280 project is intended to restore and improve habitat on 150 acres of municipal, state and corporate connector properties. About 4,400 milkweed seedlings and other native species will be planted on those rights of way. These plants provide food and flower pollen for bees and monarchs, which lay eggs on milkweed leaves and at one stage of their lives eat nothing but milkweed.
Another grant totaling $91,703 will go toward monitoring bumblebees and the acquisition and planting of flowering trees and shrubs, milkweed cultivation and invasive species control. The project aims to restore 145 acres, improve 130 acres and propagate 6,800 milkweed seedlings on private agricultural lands and nature reserves.
Monarch butterflies are revered as much for their beautiful wing coloration as for their remarkable 3,000-mile multigenerational North American migration. For some 20 years the Eastern monarch, which summers east of the Rocky Mountains, has experienced an existential crisis. The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation organization, reported in 2019 that 53% of the butterfly’s population had been lost since the previous year’s count. Some 225 million to 250 million Eastern monarchs gather in winter at a Mexican site that has been reduced to 7 acres.
“Part of the problem is the loss of milkweed,” said Ms. Koenig. “People think it’s just a weed, but it is actually important to the monarch’s survival. In this project, we’ll buy three species of milkweed seeds — swamp milkweed, common milkweed and butterflyweed — and plant them mostly on three farms cooperating with us in Allegheny and Butler counties.”
Phase two involves agricultural work.
“We offer incentives for farmers to get discounts on native nectar plant seeds and encourage them to farm in ways that will allow the plants to grow,” she said.
The honeybee population is still struggling with losses due to colony collapse syndrome, which is still not entirely understood. Ms. Koenig said people don’t pay as much attention to bumblebees, another important pollinator that will benefit from the Audubon Society grants. The grants will support two regional species, rusty patched and yellow banded bumblebees as well as other imperiled bumblebees and pollinators.
“Bumblebees are declining for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Some we see with other pollinators — climate change, habitat loss, herbicide use — but there’s something else we’ve seen. The seasonal timing can be off, a relationship that evolved thousands of years ago linking the bumblebee’s emergence with the arrival of spring. When things bloom early in a false spring and then die with the next frost, bumblebees can miss the pollen season.”
As part of the projects, native pollen-producing plants are to be planted for two years in parks, along trails and in other high-visibility areas where signage will educate people about the need for bumblebees. So far two Allegheny County parks — Boyce and Roundhill — are participating and more may be added. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has agreed to increase the height of its mowers along some highways, Ms. Koenig said, to allow native plants to grow high enough to produce pollinating flowers.
“An important part of this project is all the cooperation and partnerships we’ve built, and more are still being developed,” she said. “This couldn’t happen without them.”
The regional grants and additional investment are expected to exceed $400,000. Project partners include Chatham University, Penn State Extension-Butler County, Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network, Columbia Gas, FirstEnergy, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Army Corps of Engineers-Pittsburgh District, Allegheny County, Friends of the Riverfront, Rachel Carson Trail Conservancy, Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership and private agricultural landowners.
Nationwide, the grants will benefit pollinators in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania. They are expected to generate $3.3 million in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of $5 million. The grants were awarded through the Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund, a partnership between the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Bayer Crop Science, Shell Oil, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
John Hayes: jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: April 9, 2021, 9:53 a.m.
