Monarchs have a home in Clear Lake

by Marianne Gasaway

Clear Lake prides itself on being a welcoming spot for visitors.  That now includes winged guests.

Central Gardens of North Iowa submitted for and is now qualified as a Monarch Butterfly Waystation.

Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to mountains in central Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring.  Monarchwatch.org, which certified the Gardens, describes a waystation as a necessary resource for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. 

“Without milkweeds throughout their spring and summer breeding areas in North America, monarchs would not be able to produce the successive generations that culminate in the migration each fall. Similarly, without