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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Garden Network Issues Challenge to Protect Monarchs

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Monday, October 30, 2017   

DENVER – If you've ever watched the process of a caterpillar becoming a vividly colorful monarch butterfly, you probably have an appreciation for a challenge being issued by the National Pollinator Garden Network.

The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge calls on everyone, including horticulture professionals, schoolchildren and volunteers, to help create and register 1 million pollinator gardens by the end of this year.

Pollinator declines in recent decades have been extreme, and Mary Phillips, senior director of the National Wildlife Federation's Garden for Wildlife program, says monarch populations have plummeted 90 percent in the last 20 years.

"Monarchs are something people identify,” she states. “It's an iconic butterfly that many of us have experienced in our childhood.

“So that's been an amazing motivator to get people to focus and engage around the pollinator issue."

Yampa River Botanic Gardens in Steamboat Springs is just one of dozens of sites in Colorado joining in to encourage people from all walks of life to create their own pollinator gardens.

Pesticides and habitat loss are among the causes of pollinator declines.

Phillips notes that a Cornell University study found one third of all the food we eat is the direct result of pollinators.

Phillips says the Garden for Wildlife program helps not only wildlife but also gives people a daily connection to the natural world, whether they create a garden in the city or the country.

"It's very small to very big,” she points out. “Some of these are creating tremendous acres of habitat and others are kind of connecting corridors across urban settings. So, both of those approaches are equally valuable."

Million Pollinator Garden Challenge participants can learn more and register their pollinator gardens online, plus they can take a look at the Challenge Map.





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