“The loss of milkweed plants in the monarch’s spring and summer breeding areas across the United States is believed to be a significant factor contributing to the reduced number of monarchs recorded in overwintering sites in California and Mexico.

Agricultural intensification, development of rural lands, and the use of mowing and herbicides to control roadside vegetation have all reduced the abundance of milkweeds in the landscape. To help offset the loss of monarch breeding habitat, the North American Monarch Conservation Plan (published in 2008 by the tri-national Commission for Environmental Cooperation) recommends the planting of regionally appropriate native milkweed species.

However, a scarcity of milkweed seed in many regions of the United States has limited opportunities to include the plants in regional restoration efforts. To address this seed shortage, the Xerces Society launched Project Milkweed, with support from the Monarch Joint Venture, a USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, and private foundations.

In collaboration with the native seed industry, the USDA-NRCS Plant Materials Program, and community partners, Xerces is producing new sources of milkweed seed in areas of the monarch’s breeding range where seed has not been reliably available: California, the Great Basin, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida. To further support this effort, the Xerces Society is raising public awareness about milkweeds’ value to monarchs and native pollinators and promoting the inclusion of milkweeds in habitat restoration efforts” (Xerces 2015).

One product of Project Milkweed is the Xerces Society Milkweed Seed Finder, a searchable database of milkweed seed vendors that provides people interested in creating monarch habitat with information about where to purchase milkweed seeds. It is available at: <www.xerces.org/milkweed-seed-finder/>.

• Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. 2015. Project Milkweed. Consulted online 9 February 2016 at: xerces.org/milkweed/.