Susan McKee returned from vacation in July only to discover her pollinator garden, once teeming with butterflies and bees, had been mowed down by city workers while she was away. He said the garden was used by neighbors as a source of eggs to help colonize nearby gardens with the battled insect. McKee got three tickets totaling $300 in cleanup, inspection and management fees because city workers had to deal with “tall weeds and grass” on her property. In doing so, workers removed more than a dozen plant varieties, including milkweed—a plant considered vital habitat for monarch butterflies, a once-pervasive insect that was declared endangered just weeks ago by an international consortium of scientists and conservation groups. . Whether city workers violated the Species at Risk Act when they destroyed the monarch butterfly’s habitat would be an issue for a court to decide, said Theresa McClenaghan, executive director and counsel for the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA).
Monarch is subject to a federal management plan
“It would be an issue whether the city’s action violated a recovery plan approved under the Endangered Species Act,” McClenaghan said. The monarch butterfly is subject to a federal management plan that has been in place since 2016. It encourages the “establishment of butterfly gardens using milkweed species native to the area” and “maintenance of milkweed and other nectar-producing garden plants in home gardens and schools”. Children like this eight-year-old use London resident Susan McKee’s garden as a source of eggs to help colonize nearby gardens with the monarch. McKee’s garden, once teeming with monarchs and bees, was mowed by city workers while she was away. (Michelle Both/CBC) But according to the City of London, he did nothing wrong. Spokeswoman Jo Ann Johnston wrote in an email to CBC News that federal protections for endangered species only apply to “federal lands” and “the actions taken involved private and municipal property.” “We know the importance of pollinator gardens and providing habitat for species at risk, and we recognize how critical they are not just to the species, but to all of us,” he wrote. The actions taken were limited to this property and were the result of complaints about the Yard and Grounds Maintenance Regulation.- Jo Ann Johnston, City of London “The city includes active pollinator habitat and monarch habitat in seclusion restoration and other naturalization projects. In this case, the actions taken were limited to this property and were the result of yard and lot maintenance ordinance complaints.” McClenaghan, however, said the way Ontario municipalities deal with complaints about vegetation that neighbors may find obnoxious or unsightly, “should be re-examined,” especially when it comes to pollinator garden emulsions. McClenaghan said a Supreme Court ruling in June 2001 held that local communities have a legal responsibility to care for nature when it upheld a ban on cosmetic pesticides in Hudson, Quebec, after it was challenged by a pest control company. “Supreme Court of Canada Says Municipalities Are ‘Environmental Trustees’, Part of the Solution.” With that in mind, he said, it’s a particularly grim look for the “Forest City,” which declared a climate emergency in April 2019 and has drawn up an ambitious, long-term plan to strike a more harmonious balance between local human activity and nature. . It’s very ironic when a municipality goes out and cuts the dairy.- Theresa McClenaghan “Habitat loss is very much linked to climate change,” McClenaghan said, noting that the insect has become a powerful emblem of a continent-wide push for better environmental management. Monarch butterflies are “the symbol of the Canada-US-Mexico environmental cooperation agreement, so it’s very ironic when a municipality goes out and cuts the dairy,” he said. “It’s very outdated thinking.”
Monarchs will only lay their eggs in a dairy
Milkweed may no longer be considered a noxious weed by the Ontario government, but it’s still not considered a good one by the province’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, which notes that “milkweed species are generally considered to be poisonous to livestock. “ “Female Monarch butterflies will only lay their eggs in different types of milkweed,” says Jeremy McNeil, a biology professor at Western University who studies the insects. (Mary Garshore/Nature Conservancy of Canada) “Female Monarch butterflies will only lay their eggs in different types of milkweed,” said Jeremy McNeil, a biology professor at Western University who studies the insects. “Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars will feed on them. You can put them on another plant and they won’t feed. They’re specialists.” McNeil said monarchs have learned to digest and store the same toxic dairy compounds in their bodies that make plants poisonous to animals, so the butterflies are unpalatable to predators. McNeill said years of education about the milkweed has slowly reshaped our understanding of the plant as a vital food source for the insect. “We have to make sure the milkweed is here in the summer months when it reproduces, that’s for sure. But it’s not the only thing that affects them over the years.” McNeil said monarch butterflies embark on an incredible journey each spring, leaving their wintering grounds in the mountains of Mexico and flying north thousands of kilometers to their breeding grounds in Canada. The opening up of more land to agriculture, the use of pesticides and changes in weather patterns caused by climate change have made the journey even more dangerous because they affect the number of plants the insects can feed on. WATCHES | Experts talk about what contributed to the decline of monarch butterflies:
Monarch butterflies have been added to the endangered species list
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has added the migratory monarch butterfly to its endangered species list. “If you’re driving and you can’t find a gas station, what will happen?” McNeil said. “For whatever climatic reason, if there are too few flowers in a given year, then guess what? There will be less fuel available, they may die, and if they don’t die, they will have reduced fertility.” McNeil said this year’s drought has had a significant effect on butterfly numbers. In his fieldwork, he visited 99 milkweed plants and found only one larva. “It was really the most abundant butterfly you would see around,” he said. “The number this year was extremely low.”
