Essential Oils Company Helps Endangered Species Monarch Butterflies by Planting This in Their Lavender Farm

A well-known manufacturer of essential oils is growing a few bushes on its lavender farm that will benefit endangered species, especially monarch butterflies.

Thick, plump plants of similarly fragrant milkweed are grown on a farm where dense rows of lavender bloom.

Milkweed for Monarch Butterflies

At some farms and facilities run by Young Living, a manufacturer of essential oils, patches of milkweed serve as a stopover for monarch butterflies.

Tyler Wilson, a senior scientist at Young Living, heard Rachel Taylor discuss the monarch crisis at a workshop about native plants in Utah a few years ago.

In addition to serving on the board of Western Monarch Advocates, Taylor founded Utah Friends of Monarchs.

Wilson said that he found himself listening to Taylor's presentation while also coming up with suggestions for how Young Living could participate.

He was confident that the milkweed waystations would perfectly complement Young Living's commitment to achieving its conservation and preservation objectives.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed migratory monarchs (Danaus plexippus) as endangered in July.

The species is now just two steps short of being labeled as extinct on the Red List of threatened species.

Helping Milkweed Move

Taylor wondered why she no longer saw monarchs a decade ago after residing in Salt Lake City for 40 years.

The butterflies arrived after she decided to grow milkweed.

She donated plants to the city parks division and shared milkweed with friends.

Wilson and Taylor collaborated closely to grow milkweed at the business's facilities.

Since then, as Wilson started the process of establishing native milkweeds on his farms, the two have teamed up, exchanging seeds and best practices.

The turning point, according to Taylor, came when Wilson at the corporate office in Lehi, Utah, sent her a picture of monarch caterpillars.

She added that given that the monarch population located west of the Rockies has decreased by 99.9% since the 1980s, Wilson's ability to plant milkweed and pollinator flowers and be successful despite all the odds is evidence that one person can have an impact.

Putting Up New Habitats

Six of Young Living's farms are located along the monarch migration route, among other locations around the globe.

The program is currently being expanded to include all of the North American locations that monarch butterflies use as a migration route, and five have waystations on the property as of now.

Wilson said that at their farm locations, where the adult butterfly already had a lot of nectar sources, they immediately noticed a difference.

With the addition of milkweed at these designated locations, monarch butterflies are now laying eggs and depending on the location, and they are seeing two to four times as many caterpillars each year.

She added that results were delayed at the monarch waystations in their office buildings.

They did not start to see the results for about a year, but eventually, the monarchs discovered new habitats.

Read also: According To Study, Monarch Butterflies Might Become Disoriented as a Result of Light Pollution 

Restoring Native Habitats

The company has also given away more than 300 milkweed seed packets to encourage employees to plant them at home.

Taylor said people must restore native habitat in areas like yards, public parks, and commercial office buildings.

She emphasized how creating a monarch waystation, especially with native plants, also creates a habitat for pollinators of a wide variety of other species.

Taylor said that all pollinators, including bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and all birds that depend on caterpillars to feed their young, gain from these habitats.

The continual consumption of more and more natural resources by humans, she continued, has disrupted the normal cycle of life for all fauna and flora.

She further said that because of the ecosystems all around them, humans can survive, but they also consume the ecosystems.

It would be possible to preserve the wildlife, including insects that sustain humans as well, if each person were motivated to restore some of that untidy, natural, and native habitat for the butterflies to their backyards, Treehugger reported.

Habitat Corridor

According to the National Wildlife Federation, a large portion of monarch butterflies migrates along the Central Flyway, which follows the Great Plains from New Mexico and Texas to North Dakota and Montana.

To coordinate the Monarch Highway initiative, the National Wildlife Federation has been collaborating with the departments of transportation for states along Interstate 35, which follows the Central Flyway, from Texas to Minnesota.

By researching the quality of habitat and pollinator presence in their rights of way, monitoring signage, educating the public through demonstration gardens at rest areas, planting milkweed and wildflowers, and taking part in their individual state pollinator conservation plans, state departments of transportation are working to promote pollinator habitat in their rights of way.

Related article: Return of the Monarch: Once Near Extinction, Butterfly Population Continues to Grow