VINEYARD, Utah — Over the last two decades, there's been a dramatic decrease of monarch butterflies — including here in Utah, which is on their 2,500-mile migration path. Worldwide, the population has decreased by 90 percent in the past 20 years.
That's why an event was held Saturday on the shore of Utah Lake to work on restoring the population.
The celebration kicked off two Utah County mayors' initiatives to restore the monarch habitat in the area.
Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson and Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer organized the event with the Hutchings Museum.
"Today's event is so important because we have some of our local mayors committing to take the National Science Foundation's Monarchs Pledge, which means their cities ... will be monarch-friendly cities," said Daniela Larsen, the executive director of the Hutchings Museum Institute.
Vineyard and Lehi are committing to plant milkweed, which is a native, pollinated plant that is instrumental to monarchs' survival and reproduction.
"[Milkweed] is the only thing monarch butterflies will lay their eggs on. If we don't have that, they don't reproduce," Larsen said.
