Students at Mason City High School (Mrs. Golnick) and West Fork Middle School (Mr. Weber) have been busy growing swamp and common milkweed plants from seed for our Monarch Mania program. The students have been transplanting the started plants into individual plugs so they will establish a strong root system and be ready for transplanting. Thank you to Mrs. Golnick, Mr. Weber, and all of the students for your hard.
As reported by Dr. Chip Taylor, Monarch Watch On February 26th, World Wildlife Fund Mexico in collaboration with SEMARNAT and CONANP and the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) announced the total forest area occupied by overwintering monarch colonies. Nine colonies were located this winter season with a total area of 4.01 hectares (up from 1.13 ha last winter; see our report via http://monarchwatch.org/blog/). Due to an unprecedented rain/sleet storm at.
We are excited to announce our Second Annual Quad Cities Pollinator Conference, to be held June 23 – 24, 2016. This conference is geared toward the agricultural community; municipal, state and federal government employees; landowners; homeowners and urban dwellers; beekeepers; students; and educators. The first day will take place at the River Center located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, and will consist of nearly 20 experts speaking on current pollinator issues, challenges, and opportunities. Morning tours.
Each fall, monarch butterflies across Canada and the United States turn their orange, black and white-mottled wings toward the Rio Grande and migrate over 2,000 miles to the relative warmth of central Mexico. This journey, repeated instinctively by generations of monarchs, continues even as monarch numbers have plummeted due to loss of their sole larval food source — milkweed. But amid this sad news, a research team believes they have.
Be sure to read these two important articles about the monarch population. The first one reports an increase in the monarch overwintering population (good news). The second one reports the effects of a devastating storm at the monarch wintering grounds in Mexico (bad news), demonstrating the vulnerability of the monarch population. Monarch numbers up, but Iowa consortium still encourages conservation The World Wildlife Fund has announced a large increase in.
Researchers are learning more about these energetic pollinators and their role in prairie and grassland conservation. by Crystal Boyd The prairie leapt in riotous colors as a gentle breeze rustled the wildflowers. Purple leadplant bowed and yellow coreopsis bent as I surveyed for bees. It was July 2014, and I was visiting Roscoe Prairie Scientific and Natural Area in Stearns County. This high-quality site potentially hosted great bee diversity, and.
by Craig & Marcia Sampson We came home after a labor day weekend up north and were walking the dogs around the acreage in the dark. We heard ‘flutters’ and turned on the flashlight and there were hundreds of butterflies on the trees. What a blessing that was to us! As I grew up by Forest City the monarchs always did a stop over at our farm, so I was.
GUELPH, Ontario, March 14 (UPI) — Bumblebees exposed to even low levels of pesticides have trouble acquiring the pollination skills necessary to retrieve nectar from some wildflowers — especially those with complex shapes. Researchers found bumblebees exposed to neonicotinoid insecticide took longer to collect pollen and sought pollen from different flowers than control bees. “Bees rely on learning to locate flowers, track their profitability and work-out how best to efficiently.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration needs to do more to help curtail the sharp decline in the U.S. bee population because the problem shows no signs of abating, the Government Accountability Office said Friday. The GAO, the independent investigative arm of Congress, said efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department to address the wide range of factors affecting bee health — including pests, disease and pesticide exposure — will be.
by Jen Mihills Whether your garden is in containers on an apartment balcony or sprawling over acres of open land, it can attract zebras and tigers. Ok, not the four-legged mammals you might be envisioning, but swallowtail butterflies. There are more than 550 species of swallowtail butterflies around the world. Although the majority are tropical, a number of swallowtails are found throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. The eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly is.
From the Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter: MONARCH MANIA! REACHES CLEAR LAKE! Monarch Mania! has struck at Clear Creek Elementary. Helped by Todd Von Ehwegen, conservation education manager at Lime Creek Nature Center, third graders at the Clear Lake elementary school took to the school’s Outdoor Classroom last week to plant seeds for the future– or more specifically, seeds to improve habitat for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Read full story here
According to a Monarch Watch blog post, World Wildlife Fund Mexico in collaboration with SEMARNAT and CONANP and the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) announced the total forest area occupied by overwintering monarch colonies today in Mexico City. Nine colonies were located this winter season with a total area of 4.01 hectares. While this is great news, biologists believe an annual average wintering population of 6 hectares is needed to.