By Bree Steffen San Diego
PUBLISHED 7:30 AM PT Feb. 10, 2025
SAN DIEGO — Working to grow a safer future, Veronica Cuadras is planting native narrow leaf milkweed to help monarch butterflies.
What You Need To Know
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to upgrade the monarch butterfly’s status to “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act by the end of the year
They believe the cause of shrinking monarch populations are partly due to habitat loss, climate change and insecticides
The Milkweed Farm at Earth Discovery Institute is creating a seed bank and habitat corridor of native milkweed in San Diego County
They share plants and seeds with the community, since the lives of monarchs depend on finding this food source
“All you need is just a little pot, some dirt and some seeds!” Cuadras said.
The Milkweed Farm at Earth Discovery Institute is creating a seed bank and habitat corridor of native milkweed in San Diego County. They share plants and seeds with the community, since the lives of monarchs depend on finding this food source.
“[People] can actually do this at home, in their gardens and their balcony, wherever place you have,” Cuadras said. “You’re definitely able to provide a suitable habitat and provide nectar for these butterflies just in your own home.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to upgrade the monarch butterfly’s status to “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act by the end of the year, citing shrinking populations because of habitat loss, climate change and insecticides.
Shahan Derkarabetian is the curator of entomology at the San Diego Natural History Museum. He said monarchs are particularly remarkable because they migrate each year, flying from as far as Canada and across the United States to overwinter in central Mexico and coastal California, using native milkweed as a crucial pit stop on their long journey. He said the upgraded listing will provide more funding to protect monarchs and research long-term solution, while producing a trickle-down effect of protection.
“When a species is listed, it gives the opportunity to provide more funding to protect that species. It allows us to do that research necessary to figure out a way to bring it back out of threatened status or endangered status,” Derkarabetian said. “To protect the monarch butterfly, we have to protect the habitat. And protecting that habitat also protects everything else that exists in that habitat too, so it becomes, kind of, like an umbrella species.”
Robin Owsiacki is a wildlife rehabilitation veterinarian at Project Wildlife, a program of the San Diego Humane Society that rehabs injured, orphaned and sick wildlife.
She said the recent wildfires in Los Angeles and San Diego have burned critical habitat and wildlife corridors for a variety of sensitive species. With spring baby season approaching, they are preparing for an influx of patients.
“What I suspect we might be seeing this season is an increase of animals that are directly burned from the fires; but if you also think of that loss of wildlife corridors, the loss of native plants, and the inability for animals to find enough food to feed their babies,” Owsiacki said. “So there could be an influx of babies that are not doing well because they can’t be supported by their parents, which is kind of a direct effect of this loss of habitat.”
Cuadras hopes the updated listing for the Monarch butterfly ignites action in communities across California to help restore habitat for monarchs and other wildlife.
“It doesn’t take too much and all it needs is your heart, and effort, and that’s all,” she said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife are seeking public comment on the proposal to list the monarch as a threatened species until March 12.
Earth Discovery Institute partnered with the Pollinator Alliance of San Diego, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego and Endangered Habitats Conservancy to develop the seed bank of native milkweed in San Diego County.
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