Keep South Carolina Wild

The 2025 Milkweed for Monarchs Program: a decade of impact in South Carolina

“One reason this program is valuable is because it is accessible for all residents of our state. Also, because SCWF sends these seeds statewide, we are able to offer monarchs many options along their long journey!”

Connor Chilton, 2025 Monarchs & Milkweed Program Lead

We are thrilled to announce the successful mailing of 5,000 packets of native milkweed seeds to residents across South Carolina, marking the tenth year of the Milkweed for Monarch’s Program! This program allows residents of our state to sign up to receive packets of free native milkweed seeds (Common, Swamp, & Butterfly Milkweed).

Because monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed plants, they must have native milkweed along their 3,000-mile journey to survive. Over the past twenty years, there has been a sharp decline in the monarch butterfly population along their normal migration routes from Canada to Mexico. During this time, these important pollinators have dwindled by almost 97 percent. Native milkweed plants, however, are the key to helping these iconic pollinators thrive.

This program helps SCWF make a statewide impact for monarchs, and we are so grateful to every single person who signs up to receive a seed packet. We recently received some photos from our milkweed seed recipients, and that is one of our favorite parts of this project! If you have any photos of monarchs that you would like to share with us, you can email us at mail@scwf.org.

Thank you to Comporium for sponsoring the 2025 Milkweed for Monarchs Project!

WAIT Partner Update: Shakespeare Columbia

Finding motivated employees to enhance wildlife habitat, and connect with coworkers and the community, is critical for the success of the Wildlife And Industry Together or WAIT program. Luckily, such people stepped up to lead the program at our most recent WAIT partner, Shakespeare Columbia, located in Richland County.

After recently teaching a lunch and learn about wildlife and conservation to over twenty employees, I learned about their plans to hold additional nature-related lunch and learns each year, as well as plans to have an iNaturalist ID competition, photo contest, and a Merlin Bird ID contest. In addition to educating employees, a small team will spend an afternoon each year discussing environmental career paths with students at Title 1 schools in the local community.

 

Image Credit: Andy Sagcal.

 

Image Credit: Andy Sagcal.

 

 

 

To further connect with the community, employees will also participate in litter sweeps in the area, the most recent being a successful river sweep in Cayce, SC. You can see the impact from that sweep in the picture below!

 

We are also proud of these employees for enhancing gardens with pollinator plants, installing Bluebird boxes, as well as developing plans to create a Carolina Fence Garden, which will continue to inspire employees to take a closer look at the natural world around them, and connect them to the planet’s smaller wonders, our pollinators!

Welcome aboard, Shakespeare Columbia, and thank you for doing such a great job connecting employees and the community to wildlife!

Why WAIT?

SCWF partners with conservation-minded businesses throughout the state who want to help wildlife thrive by enhancing their properties and providing educational opportunities for their employees and communities. Read more about the WAIT Program and how to join here.