AMES, Iowa — The Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium is hosting a monarch conservation field day July 24 at the Iowa State University Field Extension Education Laboratory near Boone.
Registration is free. Check-in will begin at 9 a.m. with presentations starting at 9:15 a.m. at the farm, which is located at 1928 240th St., Boone.
“Landowners who want to learn about monarch butterfly conservation in Iowa should attend this field day,” said Sue Blodgett, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology at Iowa State. “Tours and presentations will address conservation topics related to land management, monarch biology and much more.”
Coffee and a light breakfast will be provided. Topics to be presented from 9:15 a.m. to noon will include:
- life stages of the monarch butterfly
- monarch preference of milkweed species
- selection of habitat plant species
- weed management in conservation plantings
- monarch habitat establishment and water quality practices
Field day online registration is required.
This field day is presented on behalf of the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium and the USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant program.
The Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium recognizes the need for conservation practices that coincide with agricultural production. Combining monarch habitat and water quality practices, such as saturated buffers or bioreactors, are examples of ongoing studies by the ISU monarch research team. The team recently developed a monarch seed mix for habitat plantings, which can be viewed at: http://monarch.ent.iastate.edu/seed-mix-monarchs-and-bees-developed-iow…