It’s official. The Ray Gearing Monarch Waystation is certified and is #49920 on the Monarch Watch registry. A service project of the Rotary Club of Livingston, the waystation, located on Loop 393 in Goodrich, has come to fruition.
“We’re pleased to have done this. A lot of people were involved in this. We looked at three sites, but the (Piney Wood Lakes Chapter) Texas Master Naturalist (TMN) said this is the best location because it gets the most sun,” Rotary President Mark Waters said of the Goodrich site that belongs to Brenda and Kenneth Hambrick, who gave permission for its use for the project.
Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to mountains in central Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. According to MonarchWatch.org that promotes education, conservation and research, the monarch migration is truly one of the world’s greatest natural wonders yet it is threatened by habitat loss at overwintering grounds in Mexico and throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada.
Monarch Waystations are places that provide resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. Without milkweeds throughout their spring and summer breeding areas in North America, monarchs would not be able to produce the successive generations that culminate in the migration each fall. Similarly, without nectar from flowers these fall migratory monarch butterflies would be unable to make their long journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico. The need for host plants for larvae and energy sources for adults applies to all monarch and butterfly populations around the world.
“When Monarchs migrate, they go back to the mountains of Mexico to a preserve that is protected. Their migration is about 40,000 miles,” Waters said.
According to Waters, the waystation is 36 feet by 12 feet and was constructed by local Rotarians with eight by eights. After the timbers were placed, then the bedding soil was delivered. The next step was installation of the plumbing, which is a dripline grid system under the mulch that goes off twice a day for an hour unless there’s been sufficient rain. Next they planted the milkweed. However, along with the milkweed, you have to have flowering plants that provide the nectar, so Texas native plants were planted based on recommendations provided by TMN.
The final step was construction of the sign earmarking the waystation.
“I want to thank Ray for providing the basis for this, Kenneth and Brenda Hambrick for use of the lot, the City of Goodrich for the water, Goodrich ISD and TMN,” Waters said.
Why the concern?
Milkweeds and nectar sources are declining due to development and the widespread use of herbicides in croplands, pastures and roadsides. Because 90% of all milkweed/monarch habitats occur within the agricultural landscape, farm practices have the potential to strongly influence monarch populations.
Development of subdivisions, factories, shopping centers, etc. in the U.S. is consuming habitats for monarchs and other wildlife at a rate of 6,000 acres (9.4 square miles) a day – that’s 2.2 million acres each year. This is roughly equivalent to losing an area of habitat the size of the state of Illinois (the 24th largest U.S. state) every sixteen years.
Widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans has resulted in the loss of more than 100 million acres of monarch habitat in recent years. The planting of these crops genetically modified to resist the non-selective systemic herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) allows growers to spray fields with this herbicide instead of tilling to control weeds. Milkweeds survive tilling but not the repeated use of glyphosate. This habitat loss is substantial since these croplands represent a significant portion of the summer breeding area for monarchs.
The use of herbicides and frequent mowing along roadsides has converted much of this habitat to grassy areas that lack shelter and food for wildlife. Although some states have started to increase the diversity of plantings (including milkweeds) along roadsides, these programs are small. Unfortunately, the remaining milkweed habitats in pastures, hayfields, edges of forests, grasslands, native prairies, and urban areas are not sufficient to sustain the large monarch butterfly populations seen in the 1990s.
What can be done?
To offset the loss of milkweeds and nectar sources we need to create, conserve and protect monarch butterfly habitats. You can help by creating “Monarch Waystations” (monarch habitats) in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides, and on other unused plots of land. Creating a Monarch Waystation can be as simple as adding milkweeds and nectar sources to existing gardens or maintaining natural habitats with milkweeds. No effort is too small to have a positive impact.
By creating and maintaining a Monarch Waystation you are contributing to monarch conservation, an effort that will help assure the preservation of the species and the continuation of the spectacular monarch migration phenomenon.
To show your support of monarch conservation, you can register your monarch habitat with Monarch Watch as an official Monarch Waystation. Your habitat will be included in the Monarch Waystation Registry, an online listing of Monarch Waystations worldwide, and you will be awarded a certificate bearing your name and your habitat’s unique Monarch Waystation ID number.
The first Monarch Waystation was established in 2004 at Monarch Watch headquarters on the west campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. It was created through a partnership with the Douglas County Master Gardeners (EMG) and is currently maintained as a display garden. This garden has received the International Garden of the Year award through the EMG program and was showcased on the 2023 International EMG tour.
As of May 18, 2025, there have been 50,755 Monarch Waystation habitats registered with Monarch Watch.
