How to assist monarch butterflies on their epic treks

It’s about time to start seeing monarch butterflies on Long Island, and the orange-and-black beauties should soon appear in gardens, fields and roadside wildflower patches.

Each spring and fall, monarchs undertake an amazing migration, advancing brood by brood from wintering grounds in Mexico all the way to Canada, laying eggs on milkweed along the route. The final fall brood — with wings larger than their spring ancestors to aid gliding — retraces the path back to Mexico.

And you can help them along their journey by creating a waystation in your yard, a school, park or on any open land.

The nonprofit MonarchWatch launched its Monarch Waystations Program in spring 2005, and it has been growing ever since. Creating these habitats can be as simple as adding native milkweed and nectar sources to an existing garden.

For an $18 registration fee you’ll receive a certificate with your name and a unique Waystation ID number and be placed on a worldwide listing.

For an additional fee, you can get signage for your waystation. There is no minimum size limit for plots, but a minimum 100-square-foot plot is recommended. There are more than 56,000 registered waystations across the world, with at least 16 on Long Island, from the East End to the Queens border.

“The monarch population is being stressed by deforestation of wintering habitat in Mexico, and a decrease of habitat and milkweed across the United States due to development and increasingly effective herbicides used on agricultural fields,” said Jessica Anderson, communications coordinator for MonarchWatch. Milkweed, she notes, is the monarch’s host plant — the only one that supports its eggs and larvae. “In the U.S.A. alone, we are losing more than 2.2 million acres of monarch habitat a year.”

Veronica Sayers, 43, vivarium director at Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown, a
MonarchWatch registered waystation — is a fan of the program. “Anyone can do this,” she says. “Native plants and butterfly host plants are less work to maintain than annuals from a nursery. Milkweed, once established, will grow year-after-year without your help.”

Sayers encouraged those starting new waystations to make sure they plant some late nectar producers like goldenrod and aster that flower well into the fall to help migrating fall monarchs recharge after most other blooms are finished.

Cynthia Zhang, 18, a graduating senior at Great Neck South High School, works at the ReWild Dodge Garden in Port Washington where she teaches middle and high school students about monarchs.

“It’s easy to make a positive difference with this program,” she said. “Just be sure to stick with native varieties of milkweed when establishing your plot(s). Common, swamp and butterfly milkweed are all good options.”

For more information visit monarchwatch.org.