Managing Milkweed to Make More Monarchs

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Monarch Butterflies pollinate several species of plants here in Ohio as they migrate from Mexico to Canada and back every year. 

The Monarch population has experienced a significant decline over the last decade and efforts are being made locally to enhance their habitat. Milkweed is a plant that grows naturally in Ohio, which monarch caterpillars exclusively select for their nourishment.

“It is a weed. It is a pretty weed. There are several different types of native milkweeds. So you have the orange, which is the butterfly weed or you have the pink and purple, which is the common or the swamp milkweed that are here in the county,” Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District Ag Resource Specialist Melissa Devore said.

The Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District has set up a milkweed pod collection effort to gather the seeds for redistribution so that the milkweed plants can be more abundant for future generations of migrating monarchs.

“So we’re actually only collecting the common milkweed,” Devore said. “So it’s the pink that’s normally growing everywhere along the roadsides. So we just ask that if you see a pod that is kind of dry, and not green that you can collect them and bring them into the office. Don’t take all of them, you should only take about a fourth of them to leave the rest of them to go to nature, so they’ll grow back in that same spot.”

Muskingum Soil and Water will be taking the milkweed pods throughout the month of October and is located at 225 Underwood Street, across from the Wendy’s and Marathon Gas Station.