Monarch Butterfly

If you were to ask most older adults what was the most common butterfly when they were kids they would, almost to the person, say monarchs. But those days are gone. You may have missed it, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing federal protection for the monarch.

Most all of you old-timers can probably recall that monarch butterflies dancing in the breeze was a common sight across North Dakota in your childhood. They are not so common these days. The western population is down over 90% since the 1980s while the eastern population is down 84% from 1996-2014.

On this date in 1906, the Courier Democrat of Langdon, North Dakota reported on an unsettling and slightly alarming phenomena. A particular species of…