Morgan White, the Associate Director of F&S of Sustainability and Interim Director of Capital Programs at UIUC, responded to the LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed with the following message:

Dear Land and Water iCAP Team and iWG,

Thank you for your continued support and advocacy for the Illinois Climate Action Plan.  Last semester, we received the recommendation below for adding more milkweed around campus to support the monarch butterfly population, and we are happy to take action. 

F&S has the personnel and expertise to coordinate this effort successfully. The Grounds team will plant milkweed at the low mow zone and prairie areas, prioritizing the locations shown on your map.  Additionally, once our Grounds Workers do the seeding, they will be more likely to know where it is growing in the future and be able to avoid accidental mowings. 

To assist campus sustainability, F&S is amenable to doing the work without additional compensation.  We will also request $2,500 from the Illinois Green Fund for the purchase of enough seeds for roughly 64,000 SF of space, which can then be divided up into the multiple locations.  Some of the smaller locations suggested may not be planted, depending on future campus building plans.  For the low mow zones, plantings will be prioritized along road corridors where passers-by will be able to see the plants growing and ascertain the success rate. 

Please let Brent Lewis (copied) know if you have any questions.  We look forward to assisting our pollinator population with this project.

Thanks,

Morgan

For future updates related to the Monarchs Need Milkweed, see the Increase Pollinator-Friendly Areas project here. 

See the iWG assessment LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed and transmittal update here.

See the original LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed recommendation here.