Just last week, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced over $750,000 in new funding to support two projects aimed at enhancing habitats for monarchs and other pollinators.
One project, backed by the Pollinator Partnership, will help private landowners conserve butterfly habitats across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The second project, led by The Xerces Society, will expand a monarch and pollinator habitat kit program for both public and private lands in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregions.
These initiatives are critical as the western monarch population has dramatically declined by over 95% since the 1980s in coastal California, where they stay for the winter. The funding is part of a broader $5.2 million effort to conserve pollinators across 24 states. We’re excited to see the positive impact these programs have on monarchs in Oregon and throughout the region.
This is a great start, but we can do more.
Learn about conservation efforts and programs to support monarchs and other pollinators, as well as efforts we can take as individuals such as planting native milkweed to help our favorite royal butterflies.
