Local resident warns council about pesticide use and monarch decline

Melissa Gwazda, a resident of 1617 North Apple Avenue, told the Marshall Common Council during the public comment period that the loss of roadside and ditch habitat, along with herbicide and pesticide use, is driving monarch butterflies toward extinction. "Over 40,000,000 acres of land in the U.S. is lawns, and at least half of those are sprayed for weed control. So that's roughly 20,000,000 acres of poison right there," Gwazda said. She said much cropland is also sprayed: "A 127,000,000 acres of croplands in the U.S. is sprayed with pesticides." Gwazda described past local sites where she and her husband gathered hundreds of monarch eggs from milkweed along ditches and roads prior to recent development and spraying. "Before a good majority of these new homes were built, there were mowed fields of empty lots waiting to be sold off," she said, describing Trout Road and a site on First Street as former "honey holes" where they collected eggs. Gwazda estimated the loss of eggs from two sites alone at roughly 600 per year and calculated a broader loss she described as "roughly 82,500 eggs gone" from one stretch of road when accounting for presumed female butterflies and potential egg production. She also described wildlife rehabilitation work: she and her husband once rescued a red-tailed hawk they said had likely eaten poisoned prey and later recovered at a raptor rehabilitation center. Gwazda urged residents not to spray and to "find a way to help the problem." The remarks occurred during the meeting's public comment period; the council did not take action at the meeting in response to the comments.