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Monarch Habitat in Unlikely Places

Feb 13, 2014

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  • Conservation Stories

By Mary Rager, Pollinator Partnership

Monarchs can find resting points along their long migration route in unlikely places. Utility rights-of-way, the large swaths of land cleared for power lines and pipelines, are ideal for planting monarch habitat. To help utility land managers transform their rights-of-way (ROW) into monarch habitat the Pollinator Partnership (P2), in partnership with the Monarch Joint Venture, has recently published a series of regionalized Monarch Habitat Development Manuals.

The Monarch Habitat Development Manuals offer step-by-step guidance for land managers to transform their ROWs into beneficial monarch habitat. The manuals contain regionalized planting guides to assist with the plant selection process. The planting guides list native species that will provide nectar resources to help fuel the monarch’s migration. Additionally, the manuals provide site evaluation rubrics to help aid land managers in making an objective decision about which potential site will have the least barriers to developing monarch habitat.

The manuals are available free for download. P2 has been working with the Wildlife Habitat Council to spread the word about monarchs and the free manuals. Numerous corporations have been planting for monarchs, and you can too! While the manuals are geared for ROW managers, the tips and planting recommendations can be used to transform many types of settings into valuable monarch habitat.

In the photo to the right, EnergyUnited and Pollinator Partnership install a monarch sign after planting a utility right-of-way with monarch nectaring plants.