USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will launch a $4 million initiative in 2016 to create and enhance habitat for monarch butterflies on private lands across 10 states.

 

“Today, the iconic monarch butterfly is under pressure. Habitat loss has led to a steady decrease in their numbers,” NRCS Chief Jason Weller said in a USDA blog post Thursday. “We're working to reverse that trend.”

 

Weller said that his agency would be teaming up with American farmers and ranchers based in the Great Plains and Midwest - “two regions at the heart of the monarch's migration” - to protect milkweed plants, which are the only food source for monarch caterpillars, and to restore lost habitat.

 

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