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Through their participation in the Adopt A Highway® & Sponsor A Highway® programs, our Sponsors give back to their communities daily. With so many amazing organizations and causes providing year-round environmentally focused programs that support the earth, we feel honored that our Sponsors chose our company to partner with them to preserve our environment and communities.

One of the small ways we would like to show our appreciation is by donating on behalf of our incredible sponsors to a cause that is becoming more imperative year after year.

The Environmental Defense Fund is an organization that focuses its initiatives on clean air and water, abundant fish and wildlife, a stable climate, protecting nature, and helping people to thrive. Not only do they make things happen, but they create solutions and programs that also carry out economic benefits for our cities and communities. One focus in particular is the Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange.

Credit: Yellow Lantana Lunch via photopin

Over the past two decades, the population of monarch butterflies has plummeted from more than one billion to about 50 million today. That’s a 95 percent decline, bringing the butterfly dangerously near extinction.

The critical factor in the monarch’s demise is the loss of milkweed habitat across the United States, particularly in the Midwest.

Milkweed has long found a foothold in native prairie habitats and disturbed habitats like roadsides, ditches, cemeteries, and even in the middle of cornfields. However, the monarch is losing this foothold due mainly to the increased use of herbicides in agriculture and additional threats posed by climate change.

 

An innovative solution

With hundreds of species already in the pipeline for listing decisions, we don’t have time to wait for legal action. Fortunately, new tools are emerging that have the potential to put the monarch on the path to recovery before an Endangered Species Act listing is necessary.

A multi-stakeholder effort is now underway to build a Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange, enabling efficient and effective restoration and conservation of vital milkweed habitat, which monarchs need for breeding and feeding.

Because this program will be a lifeline for natural crop pollination and the preservation of the monarch species, Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corporation® has joined forces with the Environmental Defense Fund and has donated $500.00 for our Sponsors. We’re all in this together, working daily to make our world a better place.

You can learn more about the Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange here: https://www.edf.org/ecosystems/monarch-butterfly-habitat-exchange

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