$2m to be spent on growing milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants along main migration routes from Minnesota to Mexico as population slumps by 90%
Monday 9 February 2015 18.30 GMT
The Obama administration and conservation groups launched a plan on Mondayto halt the death spiral of the monarch butterfly.
The most familiar of American butterflies, known for their extraordinary migration from Mexico through the mid-west to Canada, monarch populations have plummetted 90% over the past 20 years.
Fewer than 50m butterflies made it to Mexico last winter – a fraction of the population once estimated at 1bn.
Those numbers mirror the sharp declines of honey bees in recent years.
“We need to turn that around,” Dan Ashe, director of US Fish and WildlifeService, told the Guardian. “If you look at the 20-year trend definitely monarchs are at risk of vanishing.”
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