Building butterfly waystations

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

By the time Idaho had adopted the monarch butterfly as its state insect in 1992, the migratory insects were already starting to grow scarce in the northern part of the state. The Mighty Monarch Conservation Group is aiming to change that.

“Our state butterfly is no longer seen in North Idaho because of our state habitat,” said Mighty Monarch member Perky Smith-Hagadone. “Their historic range was from Idaho up to B.C., but they’re gone now because the only plant the monarch will lay its eggs on is milkweed.”

Mighty Monarch volunteers install a milkweed propagation garden on May 17 at the WaterLife Discovery Center. Photo by Amy Anderson, Selkirk Conservation Alliance.

The Mighty Monarchs are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization tasked with the mission to plant native milkweed gardens around the region so that the monarch butterflies will return to lay their eggs as they had once before.

Specifically, the monarchs prefer to lay eggs on Asclepiadaceae, or showy milkweed. It’s a stout, perennial that has large, oval leaves and ostentatious, spherical clusters of rose-colored flowers that monarchs absolutely love.

“I heard a monarch can sense or smell milkweed hundreds of miles,” Smith-Hagadone told the Reader.

(Disclosure: Perky Smith-Hagadone is the mother of Reader Editor Zach Hagadone.)

While it used to grow in abundance throughout the region, the increased development and use of pesticides led to the eradication of milkweed over time. That, in turn, caused the monarchs to bypass this region in search of healthier plant populations in which to lay their eggs.

The Mighty Monarchs met at the WaterLife Discovery Center on Lakeshore Drive May 17 to plant a 25-foot-by-19-foot propagation garden of showy milkweed. It’s just one of many projects the organization is promoting to bring monarchs back to North Idaho.

“Our group met two winters ago and we hit the ground running,” Smith-Hagadone said. “We now have 130 people on our mailing list, we participate in a ton of educational events and give out free milkweed seeds to educate people on how to grow it and why it’s so good.”

The Mighty Monarchs helped plant a pollinator perimeter garden at the Sandpoint library, which contained all native plants and milkweed. They also put in six pollinator gardens at Pine Street Woods with a seventh on its way, thanks to a grant from the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society. There’s also one planted at Northside Elementary School — where Smith-Hagadone served as principal before her retirement at the end of the 2019 school year — and the group has assisted with countless other gardens on private properties throughout the region.

“The idea behind a propagation garden is that after about a year, milkweed spreads like mint,” Smith-Hagadone said. “You can dig it up without killing the host plant, and then you can transplant it. So, with this garden, we’ll have a free source of milkweed to give to property owners and organizations that want to plant their own.”

Perky Smith-Hagadone, left, doles out assignments to volunteers prior to planting. Photo by Amy Anderson, Selkirk Conservation Alliance.

Smith-Hagadone said the Mighty Monarchs are an army of volunteers who are eager to plant new gardens around the area. The one planted May 17 was paid for with funding by Idaho Fish and Game.

“Our organization can’t pay for anything because we don’t have any money, but if someone wants to put in a garden and pay for it, we’ll gladly do the work,” she said. “We had about 16 people that showed up for planting day [May 17] and it was so fun. We all had a ball.”

It’s Smith-Hagadone’s hope that property owners will jump on the bandwagon and begin planting native gardens on their own land, providing what are called “monarch waystations,” so the butterflies have what they need on their annual continental migration.

“While milkweed is essential, the monarchs also need other native flowers to feed on once they emerge as an adult on the migration route,” she said. “Since moths and butterflies only lay eggs on native plants, birds also highly depend on caterpillars of these insects to feed their babies, so it’s a trickle-up effect that has caused a lot of problems that we’ve seen going to these sterile landscapes.”

Smith-Hagadone said native gardens are a cinch to put in, often requiring only occasional watering to maintain them. She said the Mighty Monarchs are coordinating with another organization called Wings Rising based in Coeur d’Alene that has a similar mission to get milkweed gardens planted in Rathdrum and Coeur d’Alene.

“They’ve been doing this back east where the monarch population is doing better because of legislation,” Smith-Hagadone said. “We’d love people to look up how to become a monarch waystation and we’ll help walk them through all the requirements.”

It’s important to Smith-Hagadone and the other Mighty Monarchs because populations of monarchs, as well as other pollinators like bumblebees, have been on the decline in recent years.

“The monarchs are getting to the point where they can’t recover from a catastrophe,” she said. “They used to number anywhere from 3 million to 10 million, but now it’s down to like 300,000. … They say we’re down to about 1% of the original population. 

“So much about the environment just kills your heart,” she said, later adding, “We’re all hungry to do something to make a difference, but often don’t know what. Then, when you have something as positive as this, people get so enthusiastic and open to new ideas and plants. It just makes you feel good.”

For those interested in learning more about the Mighty Monarch Conservation Group, as well as how to plant their own native garden, contact the group at [email protected]. Also, the Mighty Monarchs will have a booth at the annual KNPS Native Plant Sale Saturday, June 8 from 9 a.m.-noon at the North Idaho Native Plant Arboretum on South Ella Avenue near the Bonner County History Museum.