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Fighting for the Monarch Butterfly in East Pasadena

Local biotech researcher takes up the fight to help a diminishing California Monarch butterfly population by planting milkweed ‘nursery’

Published on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 | 5:40 am
 

The Western Monarch Butterfly population in California has decreased an alarming 99 percent in the last 35 years or so, and Kalisa Myers, a senior research associate at an East Pasadena biotech startup, is mounting her own tiny rescue.

Myers told Pasadena Now Monday that Monarch caterpillars exist on an exclusive diet of milkweed, a once-common plant throughout the state. But now — due to a combination of overdevelopment,  pesticides and other factors  — the availability of safe, clean milkweed has dramatically diminished.

So Myers created a “butterfly neo-natal ward,” which also serves as a small breeding and feeding spot for butterflies before they begin their annual migration south to Mexico.

She filled the porch at Auritec’s office building 2285 E Foothill Blvd. in Pasadena with an array of milkweed plants to help the butterflies in their life cycle.

So far so good for her small efforts, said Myers. She estimates that 30 butterfly life cycles will be supported by her small porch nursery.

“There’s been a lot of caterpillars here,”  she explained. “They only breed on milkweed plants. Huge amounts of milkweed have disappeared from their natural landscape. And so the baby Monarchs are literally starving to death, trying to find these plants. If we can encourage people to put in milkweed plants in their gardens in the spring and summer, they can be part of hopefully rescuing these Monarchs.”

As Myers explained in more detail, “Monarchs come from their wintering places during their breeding season, especially in the valleys and especially in California central valley, which we’re close to. They look for milkweeds to breed on. And so the females will lay eggs on the plants and the eggs become caterpillars. The small caterpillars become very large, crazy looking caterpillars, and then they cocoon themselves up. They become a Chrysalis, and then out emerges another Monarch butterfly.”

Compiled by Jim Mozdzien / Pasadena Now

During the breeding season, said Myers,  the Monarchs won’t live as long as the monarchs that eventually migrate, but what will happen is they will replenish their population. They breed and they make more Monarchs, and the Monarchs that survive, will  later migrate again.

“So,” said Myers,”It’s important to have a place for them, for their young to eat. But it’s also important for them to be able to have nectarine sources while they are migrating. And especially in the early spring, when they emerge from their overwintering sites.”

As part of the battle, the Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat Act (MONARCH Act) was introduced in March by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-M.D.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Rodney Davis (R-Illinois), Alcee Hastings (D-Florida), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

The legislation would create the Western Monarch Butterfly Rescue Fund, which will provide $12.5 million a year to support on-the-ground conservation projects to stabilize and save the western population of monarch butterflies. The bill would provide an additional $12.5 million per year to implement the existing Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan.

“Monarch lovers were once able to see millions of butterflies in their overwintering habitat, but now America’s most iconic pollinator is almost gone in the West,” said Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The MONARCH Act gives these beautiful orange-and-black butterflies a fighting chance at survival.”

Myers also emphasized that the most important and effective solution for people is to plant native milkweed in their yards and gardens, to serve as a breeding and feeding ground for the Monarch butterfly’s life cycle.

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