As monarch decision looms, conservation planning continues
December 12, 2024 | Bethany Baratta
Gathered in an Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) board room on a snowy Thursday, ISA Conservation Lead Todd Sutphin, ISA Conservation Programs Manager Brandon Iddings and Andrew Diallesandro, state private lands coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Iowa talked partnerships. It was a continuation of the conversations they’ve had for several years. How can the Iowa Soybean Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service work together to support farmers and landowners make unprofitable, unproductive areas ones that are welcoming to beneficial pollinators, like the monarch butterfly?
In the background, FWS earlier this week proposed a “threatened” listing of the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act. Under the Endangered Species Act, plant and animal species may be listed as either endangered or threatened. “Endangered” means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. “Threatened” means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The 90-day comment period, which begins today, Dec. 12, includes public hearings and other opportunities to engage. Any decision is required by law to be based on the best available science and commercial data, including data regarding conservation efforts already in use.
ISA will engage in the expected year-long process as FWS gathers feedback from the public on the proposed listing.
ISA will also continue its partnership with FWS as each seeks to conserve and preserve Iowa’s lands and species.
“We’re going to need private landowners, producers and farmers to voluntary engage in these practices, and the Iowa Soybean Association is the best in connecting with those landowners,” says Diallesandro. “When you show U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and Iowa Soybean Association together, that’s a unique partnership and a model of this private-public partnership model that I think is going to be needed to get this (pollinator adoption) done.”
Every acre counts
As a partner of the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium (IMCC), ISA will continue to support farmers and landowners in establishing monarch habitats across the state.
According to IMCC’s Monarch Conservation Effort Report released earlier this month, more than 690,000 acres of monarch butterfly habitat have been established between 2015 and 2022 in Iowa. The IMCC continues to work toward its goal of a minimum of 790,000 acres by 2038.
“Every acre counts,” Diallesandro says. “It’s up to the landowner. This is a voluntary approach right now.”
Iddings has helped farmers adopt pollinator habitats from one-tenth of an acre up to 50 acres of pollinator prairie as well as additional CRP augmentation projects.
“We’re focused on unprofitable, unproductive acres, edge of fields, scrubby acres that farmers are losing money on,” Iddings says. “If we can give them some sort of benefits that these native pollinators, native prairies have, there’s really no size restriction.”
ISA’s partnership with FWS isn’t solely based on saving the monarchs, says Sutphin.
“We’re looking at diverse mixes that can sustain multiple species, not just monarchs,” he says.
That means capitalizing on conservation practices that ISA’s Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI) staff is helping farmers and landowners implement.
For example, sites with a bioreactor.
“When we re-seed that back down, we need to be thinking about putting quality habitat back on that one-tenth of an acre,” Sutphin says.
They’ve helped restore 89 oxbows since 2011.
“There’s upland habitat there, so we have to think about quality habitat that not only brings in grasslands, but also native plants that monarchs can also thrive on,” Sutphin says.
Iddings has worked with about 60 landowners to implement various conservation practices, including pollinator habitats, across 260 acres.
“Farmers are interested in this kind of work, it’s just helping them get the right funding sources and being efficient and making sure it works on their farm,” Iddings says.
Sutphin reiterates that conservation adoption doesn’t necessarily mean taking ground out of crop production.
“RCFI is going to stay true to its mission of productivity, profitability and sustainability. We’re looking at those acres that may be underperforming so farmers can still maintain their bottom line but also help species like the monarch,” he says. “We’re going to keep relying on these public-private partnerships and combining efforts with other organizations that can help meet these goals and still maintain productive agriculture in Iowa. We realize that Iowa is working land, it’s ag land. How can we develop programs and projects that can achieve goals of both production and conservation?”
For more information on establishing pollinator habitats on unprofitable lands, listen to this podcast with Iddings and past ISA President Suzanne Shirbroun, a farmer in northeast Iowa.
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