Are you done doing your part?

Remember a couple years back when you were scrambling to buy more milkweed for the droves of Monarch caterpillars that had recently showed up on your singular, pathetic tropical milkweed plant and stripped it bare of it's leaves in two hours? You found out that pretty tropical milkweed wasn't good for them so you went NATIVE, and also found out no one was really selling too much of that. You couldn't buy enough, and you got your name on waiting lists to be called when the milkweed shipment arrived. You were horrified to think of what would become of your pillars if you didn't feed them immediately. It was as if you had taken on the entire weight of the plight of the Monarch's, and you nearly lost your mind while doing it.

Why aren't you doing that this year? Why doesn't it seem so important only a couple years later? Is it assumed that you did all you could and this year you're going to rescue some other poor creature that's thoroughly struggling to navigate the world the way it is now? I had this conversation with myself again the other morning, so I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just asking you to ask yourself too...

We all see how the media is so, so very powerful, in the realm of politics these days especially, but also in the realm of the natural world. Why is everyone at Carrizo Plain, Anza-Borego, and not at Grass Mountain, not at Figueroa like last year? No one wrote about Figueroa, Carrizo was the place to be. Why don't the Monarchs matter as much this year? It's old news - no one's interested quite like they were before. It's certainly not because the Monarch butterflies are all better, their troubles have subsided, we did it, HOORAY! They're still hungry, and still feeding on the wrong stuff and they're still in trouble. 
Nurseries responded to the mad rush of milkweed demand last year and are now heavily stocked with perfect little milkweed plants that no one's buying. It's time to get to the nursery and buy yourself a CA native milkweed plant, or 4.

*Asclepias fascicularis, California narrowleaf milkweed - GET SOME.
We shop at:
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Natives, Island Seed & Feed, Terra Sol, 7-Day Nursery

​-Paige

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