Montreal boroughs pledge to help Monarch butterflies

The Montreal boroughs of Saint-Laurent and Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie have officially joined the ranks of municipalities around North America that are trying to save the Monarch butterfly from disappearing.

The "Mayors' Monarch Pledge" program unites 150 municipalities around North America that have introduced concrete measures to help the migrating butterfly, whose population has plummeted by 90 per cent in the last 20 years.

• Scientists call for tri-national conservation effort to save Monarch butterfly

The move formalized efforts that the borough of Saint-Laurent has been undertaking over the last seven or eight years, said mayor Alan DeSousa.

"For example, we've introduced the planting of milkweed in our municipal parks," he said.

Milkweed is the plant of choice for Monarch butterflies when it comes to laying their eggs and serves as an important food source for their larvae.

Urban prairies are another way municipalities are helping the Monarch butterflies. One can be found around the Boisé Library in Saint-Laurent. Far from haphazard or unkempt, the prairies are cultivated to include plants like milkweed and nectar-producing flowers that Monarch butterflies need to survive.

Milkweed: Far from just a weed

The David Suzuki Foundation has also provided borough residents with 3,500 milkweed plants and 12,000 bags of seed.

• Advocates call on federal government to protect Monarch butterflies

"We're finding less and less milkweed in agricultural fields, where Monarch butterflies prefer to lay their eggs," said Louise Henault-Ethier, who heads up the scientific projects division of the David Sukuzi Foundation.

"We have to preserve [milkweed], which has long been seen as a nothing but a weed."

Montreal's Insectarium is also part of a Canada-wide research project working to map the presence of Monarch butterflies and the known locations of milkweed.

People across Canada are invited to submit their observations at Monarch-mission.org

"We want to know where they're reproducing and when, so we can be strategic in our conservation efforts and help their population grow," said entomologist Maxime Larivée, the head of research and collections at the Insectarium.

• Group calls on Canadians to help gather data on Monarch butterfly
• A new hope to save Monarch butterflies