I went on a Facebook rant…….

I’ve done it before and deleted, when I have to say something I bring it here. A place for posts that are a little longer.

I went on a rant about the butterfly population in the region I live, which is Muskoka, we have lived here 10+ years and from year one one I have spent summers taking photos of the butterflies in the meadow in our backyard. I sent all my photos to inaturalist and my photos were added to the butterfly migration map for our area. The first 5 years we lived here there were so many butterflies, a large number and a wide variety, but every year after there have been less. Last summer I saw one monarch, and this year just a couple. My sons girlfriend said she has seen a few on her walks, they are around, but there aren’t as many. I saw a post locally saying we need to protect milkweed and that is true, milkweed is vital to monarchs. We also need to wait to mow our lawns, many butterfly eggs hide beneath fallen leaves and under wildflower leaves. We need to stop using harmful pest control outright. We need to bring our yard trimmings to designated areas to prevent invasive plants from spreading, plants that kill things like milk weed and jewel weed and goldenrod.

I miss photographing the butterflies, an aesthetic garden and yard is great but it’s nothing without the butterflies. Imagine a world without butterflies, I don’t want to.