March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor

Help our Monarch Butterflies.

Monarchs migrate from Mexico through Iowa and the Midwest and then back to Mexico [up to 3000 miles]. It takes four [or five] generations to make the complete yearly journey. During this miraculous trip their numbers ever increase but they need milkweed plants to do so.

We are on Monarch Highway (I-35). Where you can, allow milkweed plants to grow. Your seed catalogues have flowers marked for butterflies; if you can, grow some for the Monarchs.

In an Osceola Sentinel-Tribune (12/27/18) article entitled “Usable trail from Clarke Elementary to East Lake Park”, Park Ranger Scott Kent talked about land around the trail being “seeded with wildflower seed that will benefit butterfly and honey bee populations”. Our post office last summer had a beautiful flower bed with a row of Butterfly Bushes that drew many Monarch butterflies, especially late summer.

Let’s join their efforts and help make Osceola a nurturing rest area for the Monarchs on the Monarch Highway.  Help preserve the beauty of the Monarchs for our grandchildren.