King Township pledges to help save monarch butterflies

Council made the decision after receiving a letter from students of Country Day School

YorkRegion.com
October 11, 2018
Sheila Wang

King Township is named the best place to live for humans in York Region, and now it's committed to offering a better environment for monarch butterflies.

Mayor Steve Pellegrini signed the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors' Monarch Pledge at a council meeting on Sept. 10 to restore the monarch butterfly habitat in the township.

Known as a “natural wonder” for its long-distance migration, millions of monarchs travel some 3,000 kilometres to central Mexico in late summer for the winter after spending a few summer months in the United States and southern Canada.

However, the brightly coloured species has experienced a significant decline in population over the decades, due to destruction of monarch habitats, most notably milkweed.

The monarch’s population has dropped by more than 90 per cent from 1994 to 2014, according to a petition filed by scientists from several environmental organizations.

This council decision came after Grade 1 students of the Country Day School expressed the concerns about the impact of human development on the monarch habitats, and asked the mayor to consider taking the pledge, earlier this year, in May.

“Dear Mayor Steve Pellegrini,” the students wrote in one of the two letters to the mayor, “Can you please help monarch butterflies in our city? The monarchs are coming back from Mexico and then need a safe place to live. We don’t think enough mayors are protecting monarchs …”

Pellegrini swung into actions upon receiving the letters.

“At Country Day School, they’re very focused on the environment and nature,” Pellegrini said. “We’re already doing pollinators with bees, and we’ll be absolutely delighted to do a monarch pledge."

King Township became the ninth certified Bee City in Canada last year, to enhance existing habitats and to create new ones for pollinators in parks, gardens and naturalized areas.

“It’s part of our ongoing efforts to be sustainable and to be environmentally conscious,” said Sara Olivieri, sustainability co-ordinator of King Township.

In comparison with other municipalities around York Region, Olivieri said, King Township has a lot more open spaces, and a lot more protected areas that could help foster habitats for monarchs and other pollinators.

“A lot of areas in King are protected so they won’t be developed in the future. There’ll be habitats for monarch butterflies. We also encourage our residents that have big properties to plant flowers and other plants that attract pollinators.”

The township has been keeping count of the monarchs every year, Olivieri said.

In 2018, a total of 178 monarch butterflies --including 19 caterpillars --have been sighted though the monarch monitoring program at Cold Creek Conservation Area, according to Kathryn McLellan, King's environmental stewardship co-ordinator.

By taking the mayor’s pledge, King Township is expected to take immediate actions to help restore the butterflies’ population.

The town plans to implement actions through three channels: communications and convening, program and demonstration, as well as systems change, according to the council report.