The Monarchs are Coming!

Spring Valley Wildlife Area Pollinator Garden. Sign provided by Ohio Department of Transportation
Look for (and protect) monarch eggs on milkweed plants this season

The next generation of monarchs is coming! The migration entered six new states and the first Canadian province this week. Watch for sightings to surge – the population always swells during the second half of May and expands into most of the breeding range: http://ow.ly/xXOZ30k1TkW

Milkweed has also started coming up. If you have been wanting to start a pollinator garden, now would be a great time to plant some native wildflowers. Check your local nurseries and garden stores for plants like common milkweed, swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, purple coneflower, rattlesnake master, and black-eyed susan. Big or small, every pollinator garden helps. Even our staff at Spring Valley Wildlife Area converted a small area of lawn next to the parking lot to pollinator habitat (see photo below).

More information can be found in the publication Milkweeds and Monarchs: http://ow.ly/iKlS30k1V0I