Photo: Brooke McCarthy (WBZ)
SALEM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Nancy Morgan is doing all she can to save the monarch butterfly.
Morgan, who lives in Salem, has turned her home garden into an unofficial Monarch Waystation, which provides food and habitat for the monarch population. With the monarchs migrating south for the winter, Morgan is busy planting milkweed, butterfly weed, and nectar plant seeds that will harvest in time for the butterflies' return.
"If somebody wants to plant native plants that need to be cold stratified, they can actually do it naturally," Morgan told WBZ NewsRadio. "Just plant your seeds in the wintertime."
Monarch butterflies feed on milkweed flowers and similar nectar plants, and Morgan is more than happy to share the abundance of seeds she has in her possession.
"Anybody who wants the seeds, I’ll give them to them or send them to them," said Morgan.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the migratory monarch butterfly as endangered in July 2022, and according to World Wildlife Fund monitoring reports, the butterfly's population has decreased by more than 80% during the last three decades.
Morgan hopes that her efforts to help keep the monarchs from going extinct will inspire others to do the same.
"We have to make a difference in our own yards. If we don’t support insects, we don’t support the other animals that go up the food chain," Morgan said. "If you want to help the world, and you want to feel like you’re doing something, this is something that is easy to be done."
WBZ's Brooke McCarthy (@BrookeWBZ) reports.
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