A new collaborative effort to protect and enhance the monarch butterfly’s habitat in Iowa will take flight starting this summer.

The Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, established through the efforts of Iowa State University’s (ISU) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Iowa Department of Nat­ural Resources, will take a science-based approach to bolster the monarch butterfly population and assist community-led implementation efforts.

Initial partners in the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium in­­clude farmer and conservation organizations, state agencies, companies and ISU.

Iowa is the center of the monarch butterfly’s breeding range in the summer. However, the monarch butterfly population has declined over the last decade,...