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• No Cost or Fee to Apply • Approval within 48 Hours • Thousands Paid Monthly! • See Website for Application Deadline. Do You Have More than 20 lbs to Lose? - Apply Now! $2,000 WEIGHT LOSS GRANT Please visit www.weightlossgrants.org for full Guidelines, Terms & Conditions. www.weightlossgrants.org Thursday, October 19, 2017 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • 11Serving your community since 1856 By Joy Struthers Chronicle Staff Monarch butterflies can't sur-vive without milkweed on its migration to and from Canada. A new project tracking the milk- weed plant will allow scientists to find and propagate it, which will help pro- tect the endangered species. Researchers at Wilfrid Laurier Uni- versity and the University of Ottawa have launched the citizen science project so they can collect data about milkweed. The mobile-friendly app, milk- weedwatch.ca, allows people to enter information about the plant that researchers can access. Milkweed plants are easy to find in the fall because they have large seed pods that burst open to release hun- dreds of dark seeds carried on fine white floss. In the spring, they have many intricate flowers. Robert McLeman, associate pro- fessor in geography and environmen- tal studies at Laurier, said milkweed is starting to disappear due to the use of herbicides, expanding farmers' fields as well as urban sprawl. "We want to raise awareness among Canadians about how impor- tant milkweed is for our ecosystem because of the species that depend on it," McLeman said. Over the next couple of weeks, McLeman said the monarchs will migrate to Mexico to reproduce, and those new butterflies will come back here in the spring and reproduce again. "Their reproduction is completely dependent on milkweed because the female monarch will lay a single egg on a plant … when those lonely eggs hatch, a caterpillar emerges and it eats the milkweed," McLeman said. The milkweed itself is slightly toxic, so when eaten by the caterpillar it pro- tects them from other species. The cat- erpillar will then leave the milkweed plant to hide and metamorphosize. Jonathan Walgate, president of Waterloo Region Nature, said the arrival of monarch butterflies is one of the most welcoming sights of summer. "All the more welcome when you know their arrival follows an incred- ible multi-generational migration all the way from Mexico," he said. Walgate called citizen science proj- ects like the milkweed one valuable. He said they generate data that's hard for researchers to gather by them- selves and they engage the rest of us, allowing us to gain an appreciation for the natural world. "The more we learn about nature, the more amazing it becomes," Wal- gate said. McLeman said the app is easy to use from your phone or home com- puter. "If you're out for a walk in Water- loo Park and observe milkweed … it's a few touches on a drop-down menu and you can submit the data. As data accumulates, there will be a map of Canada that you can call up and see where others have logged in milkweed observations," he said. The app will tell you the most com- mon species of milkweed in the area -- there are really only three, accord- ing to McLeman -- and you can easily identify them. Another thing the community can do is leave naturally-occurring milk- weed plants alone, or plant more. "Monarchs love milkweed in the city as much as they do out on the countryside, so people who live in Waterloo, if they want to encourage milkweed in their garden, that would be excellent," McLeman said. Mapping milkweed will help save the monarch butterfly Submitted Photo A new project launched by Wilfrid Laurier university will help track milkweed plants in the province and help sup- port the main food source of the monarch butterfly on its annual migration from mexico.