As monarch butterflies migrate this fall, a Chicago woman works to protect them

Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies travel nearly 3,000 miles from the northern United States and Canada all the way to Mexico. Along the way, some of them stop to rest at a colorful home in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. That home belongs to Claudia Galeno-Sánchez, a 49-year-old woman who has spent years turning her yard into a safe place — called a sanctuary — for monarch butterflies. She plants special flowers and milkweed to help the butterflies survive their long journey.

Galeno-Sánchez shares her home with her husband and two children. Over the past few years, she has planted native milkweed and wildflowers in both her front and back yards. These plants give monarch butterflies a place to rest and find food during their migration each fall, which lasts until late October. Her kids now love watching the butterflies visit each season.

Galeno-Sánchez grew up in Puebla, Mexico, and moved to Chicago as a child. About ten years ago, she visited her hometown and noticed something upsetting — there were far fewer butterflies than she remembered from her childhood. She used to see skies full of colorful butterflies, but now they were nearly gone. That experience made her ask, 'What's happening with the butterflies?'

She soon learned that monarch butterfly numbers have dropped sharply over the past 20 years. Scientists say the main reasons are the loss of habitat from cutting down forests, extreme weather linked to climate change, and the use of pesticides that harm the plants butterflies need to survive. Although the eastern monarch population has grown a little in recent years, experts warn the species is still in danger of disappearing.

Before she started her sanctuary, Galeno-Sánchez thought helping monarchs meant raising caterpillars indoors and then releasing them as butterflies. She later learned that this can actually hurt the butterflies' chances of surviving in the wild. 'We have to plant their natural habitats out there, because they are not human babies; they are another species,' she said. She now knows that butterflies need sunlight, changing temperatures, and even predators to grow strong enough to make the long migration.

Galeno-Sánchez connects deeply with the monarchs' journey because she, too, has experienced migration. She came to the United States as a child without her parents and lived with family in Chicago. Her immigration status at the time meant she could not be with her father when he died of cancer — a painful memory that drives her to share her story. She feels that many immigrants can understand what it means to travel far from home searching for something better.

Her work has grown well beyond her own yard. She has created eight native plant projects at her home and nearby schools. She also gives milkweed plants to a community garden in an industrial area of Chicago, and she uses donations to buy plants and pay community members who help care for them. She co-founded a non-profit group called 'Women for Green Spaces,' which hopes to partner with Chicago schools to teach children why caring for the environment matters.

Galeno-Sánchez believes that protecting monarch butterflies is about much more than saving one species. Butterflies are pollinators, meaning they help plants grow by moving pollen from flower to flower. When pollinators thrive, entire ecosystems — the communities of plants and animals that depend on each other — become healthier. As she puts it: 'By protecting them, we are protecting other pollinators and eventually protecting humankind.'