Page 18 - Brandon Sun - Your Home your Way (2019)

18 THE BRANDON SUN • YOUR HOME YOUR WAY • THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

A makeover for milkweed, for the sake of butterflies

QUEBEC CITY, Que. —
For generations, North Amer-
ican farmers have despised
milkweed and done their best
to rid their lands of it. “I hate to
have milkweed in my strawber-
ry field,” Nathalie Leonard says
from her farm by the Quebec
village of Lac-du-Cerf.
So why does she have 60
acres of milkweed growing on
purpose? It’s for the sake of
butterflies — the iconic mon-
archs. And for a chance to turn
milkweed into profit.
“Every weed,” she says, “is
only a weed because it’s in the
wrong place.” Leonard and her
partners in Monark, a co-oper-
ative of farmers through Que-
bec and into Vermont, hope
milkweed now has found its
rightful place in their fields.
Intrigued by the notion of
helping to restore the sinking
population of monarch butter-
flies — and persuaded by the
stirrings of a new market — Milkweed has long been considered a nuisance on North American farmlands but now, more than 100 farmers in Quebec
these farmers began clearing and Vermont are planting it in their fields to help restore the declining population of monarchs, which use that plant
land or ripping out cash crops exclusively for their eggs and to feed the caterpillars. The farmers are also tapping a new market for the milkweed
and turning precious acres over fibers. (The Associated Press)
to a plant they’d previously
seen as a nuisance. experiment began, but where public buildings and in back- remembered thinking. “But I
The milkweed make- the fibre will go after the fall is yards to give the butterfly a listened.”
over began when researchers uncertain. fighting chance. A 2017 study After learning that hun-
in Quebec transformed the The orange and black mon- at the University of Guelph in dreds of Quebec acres were
plant’s silky fibres into a high- archs are wholly dependent on Ontario found there’s nothing already under milkweed pro-
end insulation material for milkweed. The plant is the only more effective in this effort duction, she reached out to
winter clothing and advanced host for their eggs and sole sus- than the all-you-can-eat buffet farmers in Vermont whom she
other commercial uses for it, tenance for the caterpillars, of a farmer’s field of milkweed considered innovators — peo-
like sound insulation and ab- which feed on milky secretions — visible from the sky, rooted ple who would “want to listen,
sorption for oil spills. Winter from the leaves. Milkweed has in rich soil, and isolated from wouldn’t laugh too hard, might
coats stuffed with milkweed been in rapid retreat, crowd- traffic and pollution. try it out.” Now, more than 100
fibre reached outdoor retailers ed by urban development, at- When University of Ver- farmers in Quebec and about a
in 2016, fetching $800 or more tacked along roadways, and mont agronomist Heather half dozen in Vermont are pro-
apiece. The Canadian Coast driven from pastoral land- Darby first heard of Quebec’s ducing milkweed for Monark,
Guard tried milkweed garb scapes by herbicides that spare initiative, from a man who of which Nathalie Leonard
and liked it. And as a side ben- resistant corn and soybeans. called looking for Vermont serves as president.
efit, the distinctive honey from A ritual of autumn — crack- farmers to join, she was thrown.
milkweed fields is prized. ing the dry pods to watch the Milkweed is toxic to livestock THE PLANT
Yet the company formed seed-bearing white fluff escape — one study says it gives cows
The ecological and eco-
to process and market the fi- and catch the winds — has fad- “profound depression” on the
nomic promise of milkweed
bre collapsed last year, forcing ed. rare chance they eat it. It’s been prompted Roger Rainville to
the farmers who grow it to But in recent years, as the a mark of shame on farmlands, convert 50 prime acres of his
step in and try to make a go of plight of the monarchs be- a sign of sloppy maintenance.
farm lining the Canadian bor-
the whole milkweed initiative. came more pronounced, com- “Oh gosh, here’s another der to milkweed several years
They’re on track for perhaps munities, schools and garden- one of those people with some
ago.
their best harvest in the five ers began planting patches crazy idea and he wants farm-
or so years since the milkweed of milkweed along roads and ers to grow milkweed!” she » Continued on Page 19