WKSU Stories

Call to Collect Milkweed Seed Pods Aims to Help Monarch Butterfly Populations

Ideastream Public Media | By Shinia Williams

Published October 7, 2019 at 9:28 PM EDT

Monarch Butterflies rely on Milkweed as a food resource, and a place to lay eggs.

Local agencies are encouraging people to help grow the food source for a beloved butterfly. The Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District and the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative have teamed up to collect Milkweed Seed pods, the food source of Monarch butterflies.

It's best to pick the seed pods from a common milkweed when they are dry and grey or brown in color.

SWCD Program Manager Amy Roskilly says that the Common Milkweed is not as common as it used to be.

"The Monarch population has decreased by about 80% or 90% over the past several years, so we need to increase this common milkweed plant, so these butterflies can produce the next generation to go down to Mexico."Roskilly says they are accepting milkweed seed donations at their Cleveland office through the end of October. The office is located at 3311 Perkins Ave., Suite 100. Roskilly says they will plant them in the spring throughout the region to bolster Monarch populations.