‘Milkweed Matters’ to RAGBRAI cyclists

In an effort to promote the habitat of the monarch butterfly, riders on the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) will participate for the second year in a milkweed planting project July 23-30, along the event’s 420-mile route through southern Iowa.

The effort is spearheaded by Milkweed Matters, an initiative established in 2015 by two Grinnell College employees – Kelly Guilbeau of Grinnell and Elizabeth Hill of Kellogg. The college has no connection to either the project or RAGBRAI.

“Milkweed plays an important role in the life cycle of the monarch butterfly because adult monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on species in the milkweed family and the larvae feed only on those plants,” Hill said. “Milkweed used to be common in Iowa between rows of soybeans and corn and along fencerows, but because of the large-scale use of herbicides containing glyphosate, it no longer grows there. This lack of milkweed habitat has had a disastrous effect, and the monarch population has declined by as much as 90 percent in the past 10 years.”

Earlier this year, Milkweed Matters organized 30 events around the state, where more than 2,000 Iowans learned about the importance of the monarch butterfly’s habitat and prepared approximately 50,000 milkweed seedballs. Composed of 50 percent soil and 50 percent clay donated by Iowa landowners, each seedball contains three to six common milkweed seeds collected from Iowa roadsides. The volunteers who rolled the seedballs represented a variety of audiences and age groups, from elementary school students to scout troops to nursing homes residents and members of corporate teams.

During RAGBRAI, in partnership with Milkweed Matters, volunteers from Monarchs in Eastern Iowa, a blog and Facebook community, will staff informational booths at eight sites along the route, where 6,000 seedballs will be distributed each day to RAGBRAI riders to toss into roadsides. Booths will be located locally 1.5 miles north of Bethesda on Barbara and Stan Johnson’s farm on July 25 and Mount Ayr on July 26.

“Although 17 different types milkweed are found in Iowa, these seedballs contain only common milkweed, the most abundant species in the state and believed to be the most important food source for monarch larvae,” Guilbeau said. “’Milkweed Matters’ mission is not only to plant milkweed for monarch butterflies, but to spread awareness of how fragile our natural world is and how we as individuals can initiate change, one seed at a time.”

Guilbeau and Hill will be riding RAGBRAI together with Tim Gilbertson, of Cedar Rapids, as Team Milkweed Matters. Guilbeau is assistant director of advising and exploration in Grinnell’s Center for careers, life and service. Hill is manager of the college’s Conard Environmental Research Area and assistant director of its center for prairie studies.

More information is available at www.milkweedmatters.org or by following Milkweed Matters on Facebook or Twitter. All inquiries can be directed to milkweedmatters@gmail.com. You can also connect with Monarchs in Eastern Iowa at www.monarchsineasterniowa.blogspot.com or by the same name on Facebook.