Whoever keeps wiping out a healthy patch of wild milkweed on Thunder Bay’s outskirts needs to get up to speed on the crop’s importance.
At least that’s how area resident Daniela Belletini Heerema sees it.
Belletini Heerema, who lives nearby, says it breaks her heart to see the crop in the area of Twin City Crossroad and Pole Line Road killed off by what appears to be an application of herbicide, given its connection to Monarch butterflies.
She says it’s the second time she’s seen the patch killed off in just a few years.
The crop “is all brown now, it’s just awful,” Belletini Heerema said on Friday. “I can’t even drive by and look at it anymore.”
She added: “Whoever is doing this obviously has no clue what (the crop) is.”
Monarch butterflies lay eggs on a variety of milkweed. When the eggs hatch into caterpillars, the insects feed on the plant’s leaves until they undergo metamorphosis and become butterflies themselves.
Monarchs, which are in decline in North America, are one of the continent’s great pollinators. Environmentalists say there is a direct link between their reduced numbers and a decline in milkweed.
“As a caterpillar, the Monarch is distinctively white, yellow, and black-banded. It transforms into a large, showy butterfly with orange and black wings, bordered with white spots,” an Environment and Climate Change Canada backgrounder says.
It adds: “Milkweed is generally the only plant on which Monarch will lay their eggs, as well as the only plant Monarch caterpillars will feed on.”
In Ontario, only the rare four-leaved milkweed has been declared at risk. The province listed the variety under the Endangered Species Act in 2010.
Last fall, the City of Thunder Bay declared Sept. 18 Monarch Butterfly Appreciation Day, in honour of late city resident Dan Fulton, who created the Butterfly Garden on Adelaide Street.
“Plant milkweed and other native plants that attract and sustain our pollinators,” a city news release urged.
Belletini Heerema said the milkweed that was sprayed didn’t appear to be causing a hazard.
