2 MILLION BLOSSOMS


Amy’s Backyard where catepillars munch contentedly on milkweed


rance and greed. The critical plant has been forced to scrape by in the marginal places that have not yet been plowed, paved, or poisoned. 


 annual population counts in Mexico, where monarchs cluster each winter. Sometimes their densities are so extreme that their collective weight is enough to break branches. Rather than measuring the population by counting individuals, sci- entists measure the area the group covers at their overwinter- ing grounds. The more area covered by monarchs, the larger the population. From 52 acres in the winter of 1996-97, the population plummeted to record lows in the winter of 2013- 14 with only 1.7 acres. Monarch scientists have attributed the monarch’s alarm- ing decline to habitat loss. Monarch Watch, the University of Kansas’ education, conservation, and research program, estimates that each day 6,000 acres of the monarch’s summer habitat are converted to something else: housing develop- ments, commercial developments, farms, roads, and other human uses. As I bike, I imagine what that would mean in 


if I had to bike a week or a month before restocking? What   The monarchs couldn’t shout with rage or cry with grief. But I could. I biked through miles of habitat that the mon- archs could no longer recognize. I listened to people that had watched the declines happen in their own backyards. I felt a deep, dark dread creep into my heart. Miles of toxic farm- land poisoned my soul. Biking past endless rows of corn sometimes left me weak and always left me angry. I did my best to harness that anger and race forward with


hope. I told everyone I met about the monarchs and the milkweed. From formal presentations to chance encounters, I found moments to give the monarchs my voice. Whether being interviewed for the nightly news, visiting a classroom, or speaking with a woman in line at the grocery store, each time I spoke for the monarchs, my voice and that of the  parents about the importance of milkweed on the commute home from school. I imagined the woman from the grocery store brainstorming with her family around the dinner table about turning corners of their yard into spaces where nectar rich plants could grow. Like an echo, my message could reach


Biking across the Brooklyn Bridge


60


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