The Lincolnshire Garden Club wants the village to join some of its suburban neighbors in an national effort to restore the monarch butterfly population.
Although interested, Lincolnshire officials said they already have a few initiatives meant to help the species rebound from its population decline.
Club members started the effort after hearing about the National Wildlife Federation’s “Mayors’ Monarch Pledge,” which involves communities from across the country committing to at least three actions to help monarch butterflies boost its numbers.
Over the past 20 years, monarch butterfly populations have declined nearly 90 percent as those populations lose habitats and food supplies, according to the National Wildlife Federation. The dropoff caught the attention of garden club members, said club committee chairwoman Judy Jenner.
“It just astounded us that it’s so close to being gone,” she said.
Club members point to how monarch butterflies contribute to nature by moving pollen from one plant to the next. But the butterflies primarily rely on nectar from milkweed for food — a weed that residents and communities are known to remove.
The club has approached Lincolnshire officials to explain why they should join the national pledge, which outlines numerous steps communities can take to try and add to the monarch butterfly population, Jenner said.
Lincolnshire residents could place plants that produce nectar within their gardens, while village officials could plant milkweed in public rights-of-way and use pesticides that don’t harm pollen-spreading species, Jenner said. Club members also could distribute milkweed seeds to homeowners interested in growing the weed.
The National Wildlife Federation has received numerous pledge commitments from local officials, including Deerfield, Lake Zurich and six others in the Chicago area, according to its website.
Brad Woodbury, public works director in Lincolnshire, said officials are looking at what of the garden club’s 25 actions could be implemented in the village.
But he pointed out how the village already has efforts designed to help monarch butterflies grow in numbers.
“We’re going to sift through them and figure out which ones make sense for the village to do,” Woodbury said.
Lincolnshire does operate a “butterfly garden” at the Rivershire Nature Center to attract and nourish monarch butterflies, he said. They also have a village gardener on staff and the village’s pesticide vendor uses low-toxic chemicals designed not to harm butterflies, Woodbury said.
But garden club members also are trying to bring the public’s attention to the issue, Jenner said.
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The club plans to petition the Illinois Tollway Authority and the Illinois Department of Transportation, two major agencies that control miles of roadways in Illinois, to join the pledge.
“I don’t know how I’m going to do this,” she said. “Everybody’s really trying to get involved. Whether there’s enough time, I don’t know.”
Twitter @RonnieAtPioneer