Recent News
By Bob Hartzler, ISU Extension weed scientist
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) recently released a report (A menace to monarchs) describing the threat to monarch butterflies posed by an increased use of dicamba. While I have been fairly critical of the Xtend system1 due to off-target movement of dicamba and subsequent injury, I think CBD has exaggerated the threat to monarchs posed by dicamba. I would like to make it clear that while I think their analysis is flawed, I do believe additional restrictions on dicamba use are required to minimize risks associated with volatilization.
The Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium was honored to receive the "Leadership in Collaboration Award" as part of the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Leader Awards presented on March 6.
Iowa State University postdoctoral researchers, along with their colleagues in Australia, recently published a paper in Ecological Modelling that describes a model to simulate monarch butterfly movement and egg-laying on agricultural landscapes...
Upcoming Events
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Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 9:00am to 10:30am
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Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 2:00pm to 5:00pm
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Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Monarch Conservation
Iowa's role is vital to the monarch butterfly’s recovery! The Iowa Monarch Conservation Strategy is now available to guide efforts. Read a summary of the strategy, and here are five actions you can take. Read the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium's Strategic Goals.
Monarch Sightings
Click on the map on the right to see the progress of monarchs migrating north from Mexico.
Learning About Iowa Monarchs
We want our recommendations for monarch habitat improvement to be scientifically sound. Research projects in summer 2017 include:
- efforts to evaluate nine species of milkweed on plots at Iowa State University research farms
- a project to discover optimal monarch breeding, forage and roosting habitat characteristics in Iowa's patchy landscape and
- a survey of milkweed species and monarch occurrence, plant density, and population to establish baseline data.