Monarch butterflies at ten year peak in Mexico (Ottawa Citizen, Feb 1/19)
February 2, 2019
I can justifiably claim some credit for that population explosion because I let a local businessman who harvests pine boughs onto our land. The crew prune the lower branches of the 5 to 10 year-old white pine trees and haul the bundles of foliage to Toronto for sale in the booming Christmas decoration market. The guy says it enables him to keep his construction crew active for an additional month each fall. They’re good at what they do and the overall quality of the stand shows improvement from their efforts.
An unanticipated consequence of the pruning of the trees is more sunlight in the rows of the plantation, an area away from the hay harvesting machinery. Milkweed plants grew rampant last summer. Monarch butterflies emerged and flourished around the property.
I figure the timing was good. Dog Strangling Vine (DSV) is spreading rapidly in the Chaffey’s Locks area. Monarchs are attracted to this milkweed-relative to lay their eggs, but the caterpillars can’t eat the stuff so those hatchings are lost. Along with allowing the milkweed plants to grow without mowing them, I’m carefully patrolling my property for DSV. I found and uprooted 6 stems last summer, though it has taken over another woodlot a half-mile away. I’m prepared to encourage milkweed growth to crowd out DSV and wild parsnip.
Besides, Granddaughter Ada likes to play with the dried seed pods.
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the Walnut Diary 
February 2, 2019 at 6:55 pm
I remember a walk in your wood lot and witnessing a huge contingent of monarchs hanging out. It was around the year of the IPM, maybe the same, 2007.
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February 3, 2019 at 8:07 am
They were migratory bugs. The ones hanging around until pretty late this year were home-grown.