Conservation department marking ditches to save monarch habitat

    New signs are popping up across Franklin County in an effort to preserve habitats for the embattled monarch butterfly.
    Local officials have been identifying ditches this spring with native prairie grasses and flowers, which are being threatened by a new weed management system. The board of supervisors recently hired a contractor to blanket spray each right of way with a herbicide this summer to control noxious weeds and brush overgrowth. The tactic will eventually kill nearly all vegetation in rural ditches and eliminate vital habitat for native species like the monarch, according to Franklin County Conservation Director Jason Gooder.
     “When you blanket spray, it destroys everything,” he said. “Basically, we’re going to be left with nothing but brome grass, which for wildlife and insects is pretty much a green desert.”
            Look for the complete article in the June 8 edition of the Hampton Chronicle, available on newsstands today.