In 2013, the number of monarch butterflies sank to their lowest level on record. Other pollinators, like honeybees, were also struggling.
In response, the Obama administration formed a task force to figure out how to reverse these trends.
A monarch butterfly expert was invited to speak at one of these meetings with highway managers.
“In that talk, I presented an idea that we could improve monarch habitat by creating strips of milkweed and native plant habitat along the banks of the interstate highways,” said Chip Taylor, founding director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas.
He had one interstate in particular in mind.
“I-35 runs from the northern part of the U.S., around Duluth, all the way down to the border in Texas,” he said.
Taylor’s idea was called “The Monarch Highway.” The goal was to return roadsides to milkweed and other wildflowers to offset habitat loss.
The Federal Highway Administration signed an agreement with the state departments of transportation that manage I-35 – Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota.
But Taylor says the project lost momentum.
“All of these things take money, and they take personnel and they take knowledge, and to a certain extent, they take training,” he said.
While the Monarch Highway project stalled, some states have embraced adding wildflowers along roads.
In Illinois, where the official state insect is the monarch butterfly, local governments, conservation groups and state agencies are working along a famous route. The Route 66 Monarch Flyway runs between Chicago and St. Louis.
“We realized monarchs in Illinois travel up and down, basically, along Route 66,” said Susan Helm, co-president of the project.
Helm offers lots of advice to groups who want to start native pollinator gardens, from seed mixes to maintenance.
“There's a lot of enthusiasm, whether it's a library, a park, even businesses, historic sites, or Lincoln's home, Oakridge Cemetery, where Lincoln's buried,” she said “It's just snowballed in a good way.”
The Illinois Department of Transportation is also planting a lot of native wildflowers in the roadsides along Route 66 and other highways across the state.
There’s a similar concept in Missouri, with the nearly 300-mile long Highway 13 Butterfly Trail, but in Iowa, the state has been re-introducing native plants along roadsides for decades.
Rachel Harris, chief landscape architect in roadside development for the Iowa Department of Transportation, said she’s excited to point out all the different wildflowers growing next to an I-35 exit.
“There’s obviously the compass plant, but there’s also the false indigo, baptisia, rattlesnake master, blackeyed susan,” she said.
Back in the 1970s, Harris says Iowa spent a lot of money mowing non-native grass and spraying weeds alongside highways. Their current approach is less costly, both for the state’s budget and the environment.
Plus, Harris says prairie plants are good at preventing soil erosion and handle drought better. They also provide habitat for lots of birds, pollinators and — you guessed it — monarch butterflies.
“I love coming out here and seeing all the butterflies and the bees," Harris said. "Every time we see monarchs, like our team will be like, 'Monarch!' because we always get really excited.”
Experts like Chip Taylor with Monarch Watch say these butterflies face a lot of threats, especially with climate change, but having areas where they can eat, rest and lay their eggs, gives monarch butterflies a greater chance of completing their migration.
