Imagine a monarch butterfly highway running from Smooth Rock Falls to Timmins.
That possibility was a step closer to becoming real as Timmins naturalist Mark Joron encouraged avid gardeners from the Timmins-Cochrane district to help attract monarch butterfly back to the area by planting milkweed.
Joron’s talk on establishing a Smooth Rock Falls to Timmins milkweed corridor took place at a day-long Down to Earth Day at Timmins Public Library held by the Cochrane District Master Gardeners to help area gardeners prepare for the coming growing season.
In addition to preparing soils and selecting plants, how to bring back the monarch butterfly was a hot topic for discussion at the Down to Earth Day event.
“As a master gardener you are a gardener for wildlife and we want to make sure we contribute to the survival of birds, bugs, bees and butterflies,” said Pamela Dallaire, co-ordinator of the Cochrane District Master Gardeners, explaining why they are encouraging the planting of milkweed.
“Flowers are blooms for the bees and butterflies,” she added.
The Cochrane District Master Gardners group was formed in June 2015. Dallaire says one of the criterion for being a Master Gardener is to provide 20 hours of volunteer time on gardening projects around the Timmins-Cochrane area.
“We have really just started in the last couple of years,” Joron said. “We have collected seeds from local milkweed plant.”
Milkweed planting is important because at the larvae stage the monarch butterfly only eats milkweed. It is the only plant that it lives off.
“If you don’t have milkweed there will be no monarch butterflies in your area,” Joron said.
At one time the monarch butterfly came as far north as the Timmins area,” Joron added. “But today most monarchs migrate as far north as the North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie area.”
An effort to plant milkweed in the North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie corridor has contributed to the resurgence of monarch butterfly in the area.
Timmins and vicinity does have milkweed plants growing, but not enough to sustain the monarch in the area.
Milkweed was once considered a noxious weed but was removed from the list last year by the Ontario government to encourage its spread to help the monarch butterfly.
Joron is employed at Milson Forestry Services and is also a vice-Chair of the Wintergreen for Conservation.
Joron plans to grow milkweed plants in a greenhouse at Milson Lumber and collect the seeds for distribution area gardeners for planting for about $4 a bag.
Joron has 3,000 seeds collected. Right now he is testing growing the seeds at Milson’s greenhouse to see if they will take root in soils from the area before making the seeds available to gardeners.
People interested in planting milkweed should use the native variety explained Joron. That is why local seeds are being collected. They are a better alternative than ordering from online sites that distribute non-local species of seeds.
All species of milkweed are a good source of food, but the monarch will only lay eggs on native species according to Joron.
Glencore Mining has ordered 75 packs of milkweed seeds that they will distribute through the Master Gardeners for planting, but the shipment had not arrived in time for the day-long event on Saturday. The mining company is planting milkweed to help rehabilitate the tailing areas.
The Ontario government has designated the monarch butterfly as a species of concern since 2008 under the Endangered Species Act. Even though the monarch butterfly is not endangered it could be a species at risk if steps are not taken to ensure it has habitat to thrive.
For more information on the efforts to restore milkweed to bring back the monarch butterfly visit the following websites.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/monarch
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/monarch-butterflies-need-your-help/
