Planting Trees in Mexico to Help the Monarchs

Last updated on February 14th, 2020 at 11:56 pm

Monarch butterfly at Stonehurst in Vernon, VT — If you visit us at Stonehurst in the summer, you’ll probably notice the milkweed and monarch butterflies outside our showroom. But did you know we also work to conserve the monarch’s winter habitat in Mexico?

Reforesting the Monarch’s Winter Habitat

Help the Monarchs | Butterflies roosting on an oyamel tree in Central Mexico — In the Fall, our Vermont Monarchs migrate to the forested mountains of central Mexico. There they spend the winter roosting in tight clusters on oyamel fir trees. Sadly, their winter habitat is shrinking due to illegal logging, among other factors. The butterflies are in danger of extinction. VWS is working to help the monarchs regain their habitat in Mexico as well as the USA.

We Plant Trees

As wood furniture makers, we have always been driven by a mission of forest conservation. Thanks to the support of our customers we’ve been able to plant over 60,000 trees. We partner with non-profits that plant trees in areas most vulnerable to deforestation. Our favorite charity is Forests For Monarchs FFM. I volunteer as VP of the group and we travel to Mexico occasionally to plant trees as part of a reforestation project.

Nina and I Head to Mexico Next Week

Nina and I leave for Michoacan, Mexico next week to work with FFM and the local people in their efforts to plant trees and ensure the future of the monarch’s over-wintering grounds.

FFM Reforestation Projects in Mexico | Help the Monarchs — This area used to be completely forested Monarch habitat but it was stripped of trees by illegal loggers. The areas shown under red arrows are plots that Forests for Monarchs FFM has reforested. We are working with local people to continue this effort and restore the forest.

JLA, the Johnny Appleseed of Mexico

Jose Luis Alvarez and millions of tree seedlings in Mexico — This is my friend, Jose Luis Alvarez JLA, the founder of Forests for Monarchs. We call him Mexico’s Johnny Appleseed. He grows millions of trees from seed and gives them to local communities to help them restore the forest. Jose Luis’ conservation work has been recognized globally and we are always eager to lend him a hand.

Children and Families Make it Work

Ed Rashin teaching school children about reforesting their community — Ed Rashin is another FFM volunteer and Board member. Here Ed is inspiring school children and their families to plant trees to restore the forest in their community.

The El Rosario Monarch Sanctuary

How You Can Help the Monarchs

At Vermont Woods Studios, we’re a small company. We know we can’t move the reforestation needle alone — we all need to help. If you’ve read all the way to the bottom of this page then you are a fellow tree hugger & wildlife lover. Please consider supporting Forests for Monarchs. Help restore forests and bring the monarch butterfly back from the edge of extinction. Thanks for reading!

Help the Monarch | Website of Forests for Monarchs — You can help save the monarch butterfly from extinction by donating to Forests for Monarchs. Every dollar donated plants 2 trees in the monarch’s winter habitat.

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This blog is written by your friends at Vermont Woods Studios. Check out our Vermont made furniture and home decor online and visit our showroom and art gallery at Stonehurst, the newly restored 1800s farmhouse nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains.

Peggy Farabaugh

She is a CEO who brakes for salamanders, has bottle-fed rescued squirrels and spent her vacation building furniture for a rural school in Costa Rica. She believes in the future and in the people who will build it. A former distance-learning professor at Tulane University with a master’s in environmental health & safety, she turned an interest in forest conservation and endangered species into a growing, local business. She delivers rainforest statistics at breakneck speed, but knows how to slow down and appreciate the beauty of a newly finished piece of heirloom furniture.