There was a big patch of native sunflowers, woodland sunflowers down below the hill here from the house, and I could see butterflies all over the flowers. I walked down to see what kind of butterflies it was, and it was hundreds of monarchs. I was standing down there in five foot tall flowers with monarchs flitting all around me, landing on my hand, landing on my head. Totally, they didn't even know I existed. It was more like magic. The migration of the monarch butterfly is one of nature's greatest wonders. Every spring, millions of monarchs leave their wintering grounds in Mexico and migrate north, stopping in the southern U.S. to lay eggs on their milkweed, host plant, and create new generations that spread deeper into America and Canada. Unfortunately, monarch populations have declined significantly over the past two decades, primarily due to habitat loss. Arkansas is very important in migration and monarchs. We have monarchs migrating about the spring and the fall. Monarchs will only lay their eggs on milkweed, so having milkweed available is critical. The more milkweed we have on the landscape, the more butterflies we can produce, and hopefully by producing more butterflies we reverse that to conning population strength. The monarch conservation partnership is a group of private organizations, government agencies, landowners, municipalities, and other interesting things. We're interested people who have come together because they're passionate about the conservation monarchs in Arkansas. There's a limited amount of habitat that's available on public lands, on wildlife management areas and refuges, and with 85% or so percent of the land in private ownership, it's extremely important that we reach out to private landowners to help them conserve habitat for species. During the past three years, over 600 acres of habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators has been created through the partner for fish and wildlife and other private lands programs in Arkansas. I brought my love for conservation to this ranch. From the time we came here, we started working doing what we could to preserve the environment that was here. We have put in 40 acres through the partner for fish and wildlife. We just now are beginning to see some of the results of that, but we're hoping that that will bring a lot of the pollinators back here, especially the monarchs. If you take cows by themselves, they don't do as well as if you've got cows and you've got goats, you've got to have other species. And that includes the butterflies because they're there pollinating. We begin to look at the monarch butterfly population, which had dropped by 80%. The city along our public right-of-ways are highways and our berms and our boulevards and our trails. Along our sidewalks, we begin to plant milkweed to give the monarch butterflies food to eat and nourishment as they travel. Roadsides can provide linear refuges for pollinators, supporting a diverse array of nectar sources and connecting habitat fragments. Those wildflowers don't always look attractive, particularly before and after they bloom. It's important that we alter our perception of what an attractive birdside looks like and understand that native vegetation provides pollinator habitat in various seasons and contributes to Arkansas's image as the natural state. There's nothing more magical than those monarchs living around you. For my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, their great-grandchildren to be able to enjoy monarchs is a dream of mine. There has never been a more critical time to help Arkansas's monarch butterflies. A colossal amount of habitat restoration is needed to reverse the steep population decline at this migrating marvel and the task truly requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. To learn how you can help, please visit the Arkansas Monarch Conservation Partnerships website at argonsonmonarchs.org. There are many ways to get involved and everyone can have an impact.