Monarchs Need Our Help in 2024

By Mai Mai Margules, TEAC Member

The new year arrives and with it a new urgency to help our beloved monarch butterflies. Last year was a very bad year for Eastern monarchs. Anecdotally, those of us with pollinator gardens reported seeing only a few monarchs (and other butterflies) all season whereas in past years there would be far greater numbers. What’s going on?

Every year, eastern monarch butterflies migrate almost 3000 miles from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico where they overwinter in the forests of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. In 2023 monarch presence dropped 22%, a dramatic decline that has been accelerating over the last 25 years. Pesticide and herbicide use along with rampant development of natural areas and climate change is fueling this rapid decline. Spring drought conditions in the southern US have been especially harmful. (Wildlife Management Institute)

Monarchs need late season nectar plants like goldenrod to fuel their migration south.

Monarchs need a healthy migratory path to survive, it is our responsibility to provide one for them. Over 86% of land east of the Mississippi River is privately owned. We are the stewards of our environment, how we tend our property, our own yards, will determine whether monarchs and other wildlife have a future. 

So what can we as individuals do?

1)  Plant Milkweed (host plant) and Monarch Nectar Plants:

Monarchs must have milkweed to survive, this is the only plant that monarch caterpillars can eat. Now is the time to plant milkweed seeds as they must go through a cycle of freezing and thawing to germinate, i.e. cold stratification. TEAC has lots of locally collected rose milkweed seeds, you can pick them up at the Children's Room in Warner Library along with other seeds for winter planting such as goldenrod, joe pye weed and anise hyssop which will nourish monarchs and other pollinators throughout the seasons as they prepare for their incredible migration south. Note: Milkweed seeds need light to germinate so just press firmly into the soil and water, don’t cover with soil. Here is a step by step easy planting guide. https://www.ecolandscaping.org/09/designing-ecological-landscapes/native-plants/growing-in-the-off-season-native-perennials-from-seed/
 

Monarch caterpillars can only eat milkweed. 

In addition to seedlings you will want to have larger plants in your garden that will flower through summer and fall. Goldenrod and asters are powerhouse plants for pollinators, be sure to include these in your plantings to provide late season sustenance and garden beauty. Here’s a list of top plants for monarchs from the Xerxes Society.

https://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/Garden-for-Wildlife/Xerces-NWF/14-Northeast_Monarch_Plant_List_spread.ashx 
Zinnias and cosmos are great annual nectar plants as well.

Locally Rosedale Nursery https://rosedalenurseries.com/  has a good supply of mature  milkweed and other natives in season . WCC Native Plant Center will hold its native spring plant sale, dates forthcoming. Online sources such as PollenNation  https://www.thepollennation.com/ and Prairie Moon Nursery https://www.prairiemoon.com/ are great resources for native plants. You can preorder now from many online sources.



2) Eliminate Pesticides from your Lawn and Garden 

Each year, American homeowners use approximately 70 million pounds of pesticides to maintain their lawns, mostly for aesthetic purposes —-Audubon

We don’t plant for pollinators to then poison them with pesticides. Widespread pesticide use on crops and lawns is decimating pollinator and bird populations and harming our health and that of our pets, especially with the use of neonic pesticides which are prevalent in the landscaping industry. Pesticide use is driving “”The Second Silent Spring”. Did you know that lawns are now the #1 crop in America? Tell your landscaper that you do not want any pesticides applied on your lawn. This includes grass seeds that have been pretreated with pesticides. You can have a healthy, lush, attractive lawn with a diversity of plants without using pesticides.  Here’s a guide to get started with lots of organic lawn tips and solutions.

https://www.sierraclub.org/maryland/pesticides-free-alternatives 

So let’s work together to make this a great New Year for monarchs and ourselves. There’s no reason to feel helpless in the face of bad news headlines about the environment. We can turn things around starting in our own yards. It’s incredibly empowering to realize that taking a couple of simple actions can make a tremendous positive impact. I wish you a happy and healthy New Year and lots of visiting pollinators! 

Energy Notes
WATTS UP?

By Dean Gallea, TEAC Co-Chair

Well, Watts ARE “up” – Upstate in NY, where wind farms with hundreds of huge wind turbines, solar farms and hydroelectric projects churn out renewable energy destined for the power-hungry population downstate. And in the ocean off Long Island, offshore wind energy is being developed and expected to come online in a couple years. All this new, green energy needs to get transported from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. That's enough of an issue that some renewable generation has had to go unused at times when the existing grid reaches capacity. The need for new power distribution is apparent.

Since power generated by non-carbon sources starts out as direct current (DC) rather than the alternating current (AC) that the present high-voltage power grid uses, it is more efficient to use high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission lines. The rest of the world caught on to this years ago, and has put many HVDC power lines into use, but it’s just starting to become a thing here in the U.S. A small handful of HVDC lines has been built, some as early as the 1970’s, but many more are planned. 

Two that you’ll be hearing more about will pass through our area on their way to the NYC area. Both the CleanPath and the Champlain-Hudson Power Express (CHPE) will carry renewable energy hundreds of miles via cables sunk in the riverbed of the Hudson for most of their length. 

The CleanPath lives up to its name by carrying only NY-produced, carbon-free energy, while the CHPE has been criticized for including hydroelectric from Canada, a more environmentally-impactive means of power generation due to reservoir creation. TEAC will watch and report on these projects as they unfold.

Tarrytown is continuing work on a Climate Action Plan for the village. We are developing forecasts of how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from various Village operations will change over time, with the goal of identifying the best places to focus our “energies” to reduce GHG while keeping cost as low as possible. Hopefully, saving energy will save money as well, over the long term!

If you haven’t already added solar power to your home, consider getting as assessment. The U.S. Dept of Energy has a straightforward online tool called “EnergySage” that will assess your home and recommend several pre-screened local installers to get estimates, including all the available incentives. If you find you cannot add solar, or choose not to do so, consider signing

up to get in line for a Community Solar subscription. This is an easy way to both save money on your utility bill and help promote green energy development. The solar power you will be sharing might be produced in a distant part of the utility grid, but benefits you directly, with 10% off your electric supply cost.

On another topic, I accumulate broken and unusable electronics “junk” (E-waste) from friends, repair cafes and my own stuff. When it becomes a pile, I bring it to the County H-MRF (Household Materials Recycling Facility) in Valhalla. I’m constantly having to discard devices like remote controls and battery-operated products with plastic housings that are glued together, creating a real barrier to repair and even to separating materials for easy recycling. To address this problem, my undergrad alma mater, Oakland U in Michigan where I studied 

Environmental Engineering in the 1970s, is doing research on making products more easily recycled. It’s a nerdy thing, involving adhesives that can be “reversed” or de-bonded, making disassembly easier for recycling. This work could go far towards making things basically “fall apart” into recyclable parts with application of heat or ultraviolet light to the bonds.