scrAPES #13 "Milkweed Effort Already Impacting the Monarch Butterfly Population"

In this article, Milkweed Effort Already Impacting the Monarch Butterfly Population by Dawn Papple it talks about how the monarch butterfly have been close to extinction and how certain changes have rebounded there population. Since 1999,  99% of milkweed in corn and soybean fields have been eliminated due to herbicides. This put monarch butterfly population at only one-tenth of its population.  But now, for the milkweed-fostering efforts the population for the monarch butterfly will be estimated to be about 3 times larger than last years population.

What caught my eyes about this article, was the picture. I was looking around and saw this weird thing on a leaf with pretty colors. This intrigued me to know what this mysterious creature was, so I had to read the article. I am pretty happy I did click on this because these butterflies are not just cool looking, but they are very helpful in the environment.

These butterflies are helpful to the environment because they help pollinate. Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from one flower to another. Pollination is very important because not only does it create more plants, but it can grow the fruits we eat.  That is why by almost killing off these pollinators you are essentially hurting not only the environment but also yourselves and everybody around you.