© Suzanne D. Williams | Unsplash; © Chris Chow | Unsplash

Monarchs are the iconic American butterfly. Everyone can identify it. One of the first school lessons my son had was about the monarch. His pre-K class learned about the milkweed-monarch relationship while they watched the caterpillars grow and pupate. On the day the monarchs were released, the children donned their homemade wings and antennae and staged a monarch migration all around the school. The whole school watched. His brother did it a few years later. Those pre-K classes were staging the monarch migration years before my sons participated and they still perform the migration over 20 years later. I bet many of your children learned about monarch butterflies at an early age, too.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the monarch was a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act on December 15, 2020. To those of us that pay attention to the ongoing plight of the monarchs, both Eastern and Western, it was no surprise, and we welcomed the effort. The service’s decision was a result of an extensive review of the monarch, compiling and assessing the monarch’s current and future status. As a candidate under the Endangered Species Act, the monarch’s status will be reviewed annually until a listing decision is made. There are many endangered species candidates ahead of the monarch on the list.

In February 2021, The World Wildlife Fund–Mexico announced the results of the annual survey of monarch butterflies overwintering in central Mexico. The butterflies occupied an estimated 2.1 hectares (a little over 5 acres) of forest during the winter of 2020–21. This was a reduction of approximately 26% compared to the previous winter, when monarchs occupied 2.83 hectares. Scientists estimate that 6 hectares are necessary to sustain the population. Also, there was a 75% decline in the winter of 2019-2020 versus 2018-2019.

There are many national efforts underway to help keep the monarch from extinction. Any of the following organizations can provide more information than you will ever need to help.

Monarch Watch and the Monarch Waystation program

Carolina Native Nursery participates in the Waystation effort. As of April 5, 2021, there have been 32,534 Monarch Waystation habitats registered with Monarch Watch. From their website: “Monarch Watch is a nonprofit education, conservation, and research program based at the University of Kansas that focuses on the monarch butterfly, its habitat, and its spectacular fall migration.” Monarch Watch was founded in 1992 by Dr. Orley "Chip" Taylor and the monarch tagging program was launched in the fall of that year.

“Monarch Watch strives to provide the public with information about the biology of monarch butterflies, their spectacular migration, and how to use monarchs to further science education in primary and secondary schools. We engage in research on monarch migration biology and monarch population dynamics to better understand how to conserve the monarch migration. We also promote protection of monarch habitats throughout North America.”

For more: www.monarchwatch.org

The Xerces Society

The Xerces Society is a science-based conservation organization, working with diverse partners that include scientists, land managers, educators, policymakers, farmers and communities. By utilizing applied research, engaging in advocacy, providing educational resources, addressing policy implications and building community, we endeavor to make meaningful long-term conservation a reality. The Xerces Society has information on the conservation of both the Eastern and Western monarch. Xerces is also the home of Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA. Is your town an affiliate? There are currently 133 Bee Cities and 117 Bee Campuses in 43 states. The Bee City program was founded in Asheville by Phyllis Stiles.

For more: https://xerces.org

Sonia Altizer

Watch Sonia Altizer’s Ted Talk “What We Can Learn from the Migration of the Monarch Butterfly.”

For more: http://bit.ly/monarchs-altizer

There are organizations everywhere working hard to help save the monarchs. If you do a quick search right now you will be amazed at what’s going on in your community. A quick search for the Asheville area yielded quite an impressive list of resources, press and general information of how to get involved, where to obtain milkweed, when and where to witness the migration and much more.

Monarchs need milkweed. Most of us grow plants. Consequently, we certainly are in a position to give aid. Plant a patch at your nursery – it beats mowing. Grow some and give it away. The elementary school closest to you will take it, I bet. There is probably more than one species of milkweed native to your area. If you plant it, they will come. It’s fun and can help save our wonderful monarch from extinction.

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There is a proposal in Washington to more than double the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The increase would be phased in over several years. Supporters say the increase is far overdue, as the last time the minimum wage was raised occurred in 2009. Plus, advocates ask how anyone paid the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour can survive with today’s prices.

Hence, it can be easy to be behind raising the minimum wage if it means low-income workers will earn more. However, will the impacts stop here? Could there be some adverse consequences of mandating a higher minimum wage that could come back to hurt the very individuals the higher wage is designed to help?

This is a question that economists have long examined for the more than eighty years the minimum wage has been in existence. There are several worries about a higher minimum wage. Will employers reduce the number of minimum wage workers employed? Or if the workers are kept, will employers cut their hours worked? Maybe over time, employers will only hire higher-skilled workers who – the employers judge – justify the higher pay.

Also, will a higher minimum wage encourage employers to move away from using people to perform tasks to using technology and machines? This last possibility has become more of a concern with the rapid advancements in the capabilities of technology and machinery. Indeed, many experts think these advances will accelerate in the post-Covid-19 economy.

Let me relate a personal story to illustrate some of these issues. When I turned 16 I took a job at a fast-food restaurant and was paid the prevailing minimum wage of $1.00 an hour. The hours didn’t conflict with my high school education, and I was proud to be earning my own money. I also made some great friends and learned how to work with others and handle crises. When a regular customer ordered 50 hamburgers for a party to start in an hour, we worked really, really fast.

After breaking me in on the fryer and then a stint on the grill, the owner-manager moved me to the counter for taking orders after he discovered I was good at quickly adding numbers. In those days, the cash register did not add prices. Counter workers did the additions on customers’ bags, and I rarely made a mistake.

After about a year a friend tipped me off to a job in a furniture warehouse. Initially I wasn’t interested because I’d be working mostly alone, and the hours weren’t as good for my academic schedule. But then I heard the pay was $1.65 an hour, 40 percent more than the $1.15 I was earning after a couple of raises. I had an interview and was offered the job.

Still, I didn’t want to leave the restaurant. I went to the owner-manager and told him about my offer. I hoped he would increase my wage to maybe $1.50 an hour, which would be enough for me to stay.

The owner-manager didn’t budge. He told me if he paid me $1.50 an hour, word would eventually get out to the other employees, and he’d have to give them a big raise too. He said he just couldn’t do that. He was already operating on a small margin of 3 percent – meaning revenues exceeded costs by only 3 percent – and raising everyone’s pay would wipe that out. Alternatively, he could raise the prices of his burgers, fries, and drinks to cover the raises, but that would only drive customers away to other restaurants with lower costs.

Of course, a higher minimum wage would apply to all fast-food restaurants, so presumably losing customers to similar competitors wouldn’t be an issue. Still, most of the concerns worrying the owner-manager over 50 years ago still persist today.

Supporters say the increase is far overdue, as the last time the minimum wage was raised occurred in 2009.

As you might expect, economists have done hundreds of studies on impacts of a higher minimum wage. Not all – but a majority – show good and bad impacts. The good is minimum wage workers who stay employed realize a boost to their income. The bad is that collectively, employers will reduce the number of minimum wage jobs or reduce their hours. This is especially the case for younger workers and those with a high school or less education.

If we want to help low-wage workers but don’t increase the minimum wage, are there any alternatives? Yes, there are. One idea is a public wage subsidy. Here the government – likely the federal government – pays low-wage workers an additional wage that then brings their total wage to a higher level, like $15. Another plan would combine all the federal anti-poverty programs into monthly payments to low-wage workers in order to increase their income to an acceptable level.

Important for both alternative plans would be withdrawing financial help at an amount less than the additional income a worker would earn from securing a better paying job. This is necessary to maintain incentives for low-paid workers to move up the economic ladder by, for example, acquiring additional skills.

The minimum wage has been one of the main policy tools our country has used to assist low-income workers. While its purpose is laudable, logic and research suggest there may be some downsides. Is there a better way? You decide.

Before the term “plant blindness” was coined in 1998 by botanists James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler, the majority of people in the U.S. had lost their collective ability to notice the plants around them. What was common knowledge to our ancestors has become an obliviousness about where our food comes from, the importance of plants to the health of humans and animals, and a failure to appreciate the role of plants in the very survival of our planet. Seed Your Future has been working tirelessly to turn things around and inspire more people — especially youth — to appreciate the role of plants in our world and perhaps explore a career working with plants. Modest gains were being made.

Then the world changed. A global pandemic altered every facet of life for humans including how we live, work, eat, play and socialize. Fear of going outside, fear of connecting with others and fear of an unknown health plague forced us not only to isolate from one another, but from the natural world. Even though decades of solid research affirms the ability of plants and nature to heal, cure, soothe and inspire, access to outdoor spaces was restricted. Even enjoying one’s own backyard or balcony was seen by many as a risk too perilous to take.

As media coverage exploded about the spread of the pandemic, the Seed Your Future movement searched for the voice we would take to help provide respite from a growing panic. While certainly the pandemic was, and still is, a dangerous issue, we chose to spread messages about the power of plants to support our mental and physical health — especially in times of crisis. Our #NatureNeverCloses and #YearOfThePlant campaigns provide inspiration about plants and nature. We were trying to change the vernacular. It’s about physical distancing not social isolation. Being around plants, growing plants, and even just looking at flowers and plants has been proven by study after study to improve our mood, provide hope, and nourish us from both hunger and despair.

While we can never say that there is a “silver lining” to the pandemic, the fact is there are more people expressing interest in plants, growing their own food and flowers, purchasing houseplants, seeds, garden supplies and spending their time improving the world around them with plants. A “green lining,” as it were.

As people who have plant-passion, this truly is the defining moment we’ve been working for. Economists report that garden and plant retailers experienced one of the best sales seasons ever in 2020, which has continued into 2021. Families are choosing to spend their precious funds on growing their own food, enhancing their surroundings, and buying houseplants to cheer their isolation.

But people can be fickle, attention spans short, and if we don’t capitalize on this moment, time will pass and interest in gardening and plants may wane again. So, what can we do about it?

I believe the answer is straightforward. It’s you, and me, and other educators, and plant-enthusiasts, and frankly, everyone who already knows that the fate of our world lies in the next generation embracing the importance of plants not only to humans, but to animals, and to Earth.

Call to action

So, how do we do it? I suggest that the focus should be on kids. Families are hungry for meaningful, enjoyable activities for their children. Here are just a few ideas of what you can do today to make a difference.

1. Show kids the power of plants and the rewards of careers working with plants. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a youth program leader, a horticulturist or someone simply passionate about plants — you can open kids’ eyes to the wonder of the plant world.

• Seed Your Future’s BLOOM! Campaign has sample lesson plans, activities, an online learning module and more. Use the activities with your family, your students, and your youth programs.
• Make it fun! We recently created three DIY videos of fun projects to do with plants. Check them out and do them with the kids in your life. These include: Grow Your Own Plants with Hydroponics, Make Your Own Fun Light Maze for Plants, and Use Plants to Dye Your Own Clothes.
• Check out one of Seed Your Future’s partner’s resources for gardening with kids. KidsGardening.org has many projects and activities. Pick a few and have some fun.

2. Encourage families to get involved in one of the cool plant-based citizen scientist projects they can do in and around their homes and communities. The Chicago Botanic Garden’s national BudBurst project is one of our favorites.

3. Use the excellent #PlantsDoThat free resources and infographics from the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture. They tell the story of how plants make a positive difference in our lives.

Green careers

If kids don’t notice the plants in the world around them, how can they develop a life-long appreciation for plants, and why would they ever have an interest in a career working with plants? We must show them how plants impact our lives every day, and the diversity of careers across the art, science, technology and business of plants.

But we cannot serve these ideas up to kids “the old way.” Through Seed Your Future’s focus group research with kids across the country, kids gave us some sage advice: stop using “weird” words like “horticulture,” show them through video and social media content how plants can change the world, and have “cool” young people tell them about their rewarding (#ILoveMyPlant Job) careers. They coined the term “plantologist” instead of “horticulturist” and urged us to connect plants to what they are already interested in such as sports, fashion, medicine, technology, art, and more.

We’ve created a few dozen videos already. Check them out on our YouTube channel (search for “We Are BLOOM!”). But there’s more you can do today. Create and share your own fun videos. If you don’t have the expertise to make an informal video, likely you know a young person who does. Ask them to help you make a fun video about your passion for plants. If you are a green-collar pro, talk about your career and tell them why #ILoveMyPlantJob.

And, check out our free online Career Exploration Tool (www.seedyourfuture.org/careers). With more than a hundred careers highlighted, you and the kids in your life can explore the diverse careers, the education needed, where to study, professional groups to help, and links to scholarships and internships.

Making life-long plant enthusiasts

Our mission to grow awareness of the power of plants and the rewards of careers working with plants seemed to be poised right where we wanted it to be. After all, with the growing interest in plants, if we do our job well, we can turn that into more interest in careers working with plants, right? We were riding high with enthusiasm and declared 2021 the Year of Plant Power.

With our awareness campaigns and projects with partners such as Scholastic launched in full force, and our movement’s volunteers full of optimism and drive, I found myself caught unprepared when a phone call challenged my thinking.

In talking with a seasoned horticulture professional, he expressed pessimism that the “green-lining” would have any long-term impact on appreciation for plants and interest in careers working with plants. He surprised me, and I admit my first reaction was one of exasperation (who wants to listen to Cassandra when you are Pollyanna?). I refrained from jumping through the phone to tell him how wrong he was. Instead, I asked questions about his perspective. He noted other times in history when he thought renewed interest in plants (e.g., Victory Gardens of the 1940s) did not translate into long-term plant-passion and plant-career interest.

I heard him. I understood his points. And I questioned, will this “green-lining” indeed be different?

By a coincidence of timing, that same week we were judging the Scholastic BLOOM! Plant Mash-up contest submissions from students across the country. Almost 5,000 middle-schoolers identified challenges in their own community, then imagined a plant-based solution founded on the qualities of two plants they “mashed-up.” What an incredible inspiration! The students were so thoughtful and creative. Our judges had a challenging time selecting the winners. It renewed my optimism. These students get it. They are our future. But will that be enough?

Alone, it won’t be enough. But together, we can be more than enough.

We can change the trajectory. We can eliminate plant apathy. We can inspire more young people to pursue the “green-collar” careers that will make a difference to our world.

If each of us can inspire even one person to pursue a green-collar career, we can ensure a strong pipeline of future talent — talent that will take the reins and provide the technology, science, art, education and business acumen to ensure the future of our people and our planet. Together we can turn this green-lining into a world with a bounty of green-collar professionals.

Together, we can ensure that the next generation emerges from this pandemic with a life-long interest in plants, gardens, and gardening. Let’s not miss this opportunity to share the “green lining” and teach people how plants can indeed cure, heal, soothe and inspire.

For more: www.seedyourfuture.org

Susan Yoder is the former executive director of Seed Your Future. Yoder retired in 2021. This information originally appeared on the Seed Your Future blog.

Photo by Franz van Duns

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a be-on-the-lookout alert for the box tree moth, a destructive pest of one of the industry’s most valuable and prolific crops: boxwood.

In late May, APHIS confirmed the presence of box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis, in the continental United States and has been taking action to contain and eradicate it. The pest was imported on nursery plants shipped from Ontario, Canada.

The box tree moth can significantly damage and potentially kill boxwood plants if left unchecked. Between August 2020 and April 2021, a nursery in St. Catharines, Ontario, shipped boxwood that may have been infested with box tree moth to 25 retail locations in six states —Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina — and a distribution center in Tennessee.

As of July 15, APHIS confirmed the pest had been officially identified in three facilities in Michigan, one in Connecticut, one in South Carolina and one in Ohio. APHIS announced it is working with state plant regulatory officials to determine whether other facilities may be impacted.

In late May, APHIS issued a Federal Order (bit.ly/BTM_Federal_Order) to halt the importation of host plants from Canada, including boxwood (Buxus sp.), euonymus (Euonymus sp.), and holly (Ilex sp.).

APHIS announced it’s coordinating closely with the affected states to:

• Find and destroy the imported plants in the receiving facilities.
• Trace imported plants that were sold to determine additional locations of potentially infected boxwood.
• Provide box tree moth traps and lures for surveys in the receiving facilities and other locations that received potentially infected boxwood.
• Prepare outreach materials for state agriculture departments, industry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialists stationed along the Canadian border, as well as the public.

“These immediate measures are focused on protecting the economic viability of the thriving U.S. boxwood industry as well as nurseries and other establishments that sell these plants wholesale and direct to consumers,” according to released statement by APHIS.

Canada has also acted swiftly to stop the spread, according to Jen Llewellyn, nursery and landscape specialist at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

“Ontario has increased its intensity of pheromone traps in the area surrounding the new find in Niagara and the existing Toronto surveillance area, as part of an industry-led initiative to delineate the infestation and limit the spread of this pest,” she said in a late June interview. “Quebec and British Columbia are actively using pheromone traps to confirm BTM is not found in these areas, to provide fact-based evidence to support a reconsideration of the USDA-APHIS Canada-wide order.

“Best management practices are being implemented across Canada by nursery growers to ensure host plants are free from BTM at the time of shipping. Based on the Canadian experience, we encourage U.S. growers to monitor for this pest in areas of key boxwood production as an early warning system.”

Identification

Adult bodies are white, with a brown head and abdomen. Wings are white and slightly iridescent, with an irregular thick brown border spanning 1.6-1.8 inches. Some adults have completely brown wings with a small white streak on each forewing.

Eggs are pale yellow and laid in flat clusters on the underside of leaves. As they mature, a black spot appears marking the larval head.

Newly hatched larvae have black heads and are green to yellow. As they age, dark brown stripes develop on the body. Sixth instar larvae are about 1.6 inches long and have thin white and thick black stripes and black dots outlined in white along the length of the body.

Pupae develop inside a silk cocoon and are 0.6-0.8 inches long. They are initially green, with black stripes on the back, and turn brown as they mature.

Damage

The box tree moth can cause heavy defoliation of boxwood plants if populations are left unchecked. Defoliation of existing and new growth can kill the plant. If no foliage is available, larvae have been observed feeding on the bark, which can cause branches or the entire plant to die.

Signs of damage may not appear at the beginning of an infestation because young larvae hide among twigs and leaves. Larvae skeletonize the leaves and feed on the bark, causing defoliation and dryness, leading to the plant’s death. Signs of feeding include green-black frass (excrement) and webbing.

Monitoring

According to APHIS, start delimitation surveys immediately after detecting box tree moth. Depending on the climatic conditions where the moth is detected, two to five generations may occur per year. If no additional detections are made, surveys should continue for at least one year in areas with three or more generations and for two years in areas with two generations. Survey continuously when temperatures are greater than 51°F and adults are flying, typically between May and October.

If moths are detected in the fall in areas where the pest is likely to overwinter, surveys should resume the following spring, based on degree day models for adult emergence.

The most suitable method for detecting and delimiting box tree moth is through the use of pheromone traps. The survey design focuses on trapping in the core area around the initial detection and along the perimeter of the survey area. Visual inspections for box tree moths and damage to host plants can be useful, but some infested plants may not have visible insects or symptoms, depending on the time and severity of infestation.

For delimitation survey design, refer to the box tree moth response guidelines here, https://bit.ly/BTM-pest-response.

Control

APHIS has released a list of insecticides available in the United States for use against box tree moth:

Diamides (Mode of Action [MOA] 28), chlorantraniliprole (active ingredient [AI]); ecdysone Receptor Antagonists (MOA 18), methoxyfenozide (AI); glutamate gated chloride channel blocker (MOA 6), abamectin (AI) and emamectin benzoate (AI); neonicotinoids (MOA 4A), thiacloprid (AI); organophosphate (MOA 1B), trichlorfon/dimethoate/chlorpyrifos (AI); pyrethroids (MOA 3A), λ-cyhalothrin/ß-cyfluthrin/cypermethrin/τ-fluvalinate (AI); and spinosyns (MOA 5), spinosad (AI).

Please refer to the pest response guidelines (https://bit.ly/BTM-pest-response)for more details.

There are some biological control options. Chelonus tabonus, Tyndarichus spp. and Trichogramma spp. are reported to parasitize box tree moth eggs. Bioinsecticides based on Bacillus thuringiensis serotype kurstaki (Btk) have been effective against box tree moth larvae in Europe. Casinaria spp., Compsilura concinnata, Dolichogenidea stantoni, Exorista sp., Protapanteles mygdonia and Pseudoperichaeta nigrolineata are larval parasitoids of box tree moth. In laboratory studies, entomopathogenic nematodes Steinernema carpocapsae and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora caused high mortality of box tree moth larvae. Brachymeria lasus and Apechthis compunctator are pupal parasitoids of box tree moth.

Sources: USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and reporting by Kelli Rodda