Monarch Butterfly population declines have become so pronounced that Monarchs are now being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act. While there are many causes for the Monarch’s decline (e.g., habitat loss, disease, etc.), there are also many potential solutions. Work in progress by WVU Extension Service with WV DNR to set up a WV Monarch Summit to discuss actions that can be taken to increase and improve pollinator habitat across WV. Extension seeks representatives from agriculture, conservation agencies, transportation, the mining industry, the oil and gas industry, the forest products industry, community groups, and planning commissions, as well as anyone with ideas of how we can work together to bring healthy populations of our state butterfly back to West Virginia.
With identified partners and contributors, WV Extension will hold the West Virginia Monarch Summit, a two-day event (March 5-6, 2018), that gathered ideas from West Virginia’s public, private, and commercial sectors to create a reasonable, voluntary, workable Monarch Conservation Strategy. With this strategy, West Virginia will be poised to: 1) conserve Monarch Butterflies and their habitat, 2) help to prevent the listing Monarch Butterflies under the Endangered Species Act, and 3) thereby avoid additional regulations… More as we learn it.