Daily Archives: May 4, 2021

Pose

Intervention

Season 3 Episode 2

Editors Rating 3 stars ***

Photo: Eric Liebowitz/FX

The title for the second episode of Poses final season (which aired in tandem with its premiere opener) hints at exactly what dominates the hour-long proceedings. Only, it would have perhaps been more accurate had the title been a plural. Intervention may hint at the staged gathering wherein Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) and the House of Evangelista lovingly attempt to get Pray Tell (Billy Porter) to acknowledge the fact that he has a drinking problem, but there were several scenes peppered throughout that followed that very same dynamic (see: Papi and Angel, Elektra and Lulu).

But the bluntness of the episodes title speaks also to the tacitly understood structure of the show. Theres always been a welcome didacticism to Pose, an understanding that the FX drama hopes to be this generations Beverly Hills, 90210. Or, rather, its contemporary companion. Seen side by side, especially when operating in the kind of very special episode vein that an entry like Intervention so recalls, 90210 and Pose almost feel like sister shows, intent on serving as narrative PSAs that embolden viewers young and old to understand why some people make the ill-conceived choices they make. Pose is both a belated corrective and a fabulous reworking of that kind of storytelling, filtered through the specificity of its queer and trans characters, many of whom (like Pray) carry with them traumas and burdens that span generations.

So yes, if there are some moments in the episode that feel a tad ham-fisted or slightly overwrought, Im inclined to look past them. Its not just that I couldnt have fathomed seeing the kinds of conversations about addiction as tied to the grief over HIV/AIDS on a show like 90210 back when I was a teen, but that now, in my 30s, seeing those same conversations feels powerful in and of itself: Much is made of what a show like Pose is doing for younger generations, but Im constantly reminded (especially in those moments where intergenerational rivalries and solidarities flare up, as between Pray and Lemar, or Pray and Ricky) that this chronicle of a queer past is a potent call to arms for our very present.

Watching Blanca, for instance, navigating a terse outing with Christophers parents filled with euphemistic barbs (his mother finds the prospect of Blancas having owned a nail salon stimulating and her growing up in the projects colorful) only to then see her standing up for herself is as heartwarming as it is empowering. She may claim shes lost her self-confidence, but theres something in Blanca that will always make her stand out and stand up for herself. Credit where its due: Rodriguezs ability to capture a fragile but steely resilience is what makes Blanca such a revelation; watch her in those two meet the Huxtables scenes and notice how shes constantly shuttling between shrinking herself to be liked and gritting her teeth for making herself do so. By the time she stands up (quite literally), it feels like a vision of the Blanca we know, the one Christopher first fell in love with. Its a glorious moment of self-empowerment that is accompanied by a loving show of support: The dinners been a redo and Christopher has risen to the challenge when, perhaps in a different show, he may have failed.

I return here, as I did in my previous recap, to the way this signals a subtle but undeniable aspect of the writing in Pose: These are people who are not only rooting for their characters, but actively creating worlds (as imagined as they are authentic) that allow them to be the selves they deserve to be. Thats why even when the show puts a character like Pray Tell in a situation where hes clearly on the path to self-destruction, you know therell be a light at the end of the tunnel. Does this deprive the show of what we would normally call narrative tension because we trust a happy ending will be inevitable? Perhaps. But as Pray in this episode shows, that doesnt detract from Pose extracting all the drama out of such a plotline.

Which is to say: This episode alone could handily win Billy Porter another Emmy.

Think about it: In the span of an hour, we get to see the actor perform a killer lip sync (give it up for En Vogue!), deliver a scathing series of all too personal reads (If I wanted advice from a crackhead, I would walk out on the streets and ask for it), break down in tears when faced with the prospect of losing Ricky, and finally find his way back to sobriety before checking into rehab upstate. Porter gives you everything: the numbness that comes with alcoholism, the euphoria that comes with an energetic ballroom outing, the righteous frustration that comes with seeing friends and former lovers dying all while showing the children what a seasoned performer can do with a perfectly timed close-up.

Again, Prays storytelling feels all too neatly parceled out, too tidy even amidst Poses penchant for keeping its episodes tightly packaged. I mean, the episode is titled Intervention; obviously this wasnt designed as a season-long arc despite its rich thematic content. But even with this accelerated pacing, theres no denying Porter was given a feast of an episode (give or take a too-clever clunky line like, I drink because I hate myself. And I hate myself because I drink).

And just as with Blancas story line (funny how both of these early episodes have so sidelined the shows ancillary characters, no?), Prays moments of self-reflection hit a chord precisely because they vocalize what many then (and perhaps to this day) carry with them as they cope with life in the shadow of HIV/AIDS. What do you do with such pain? What do you do with the trauma? How do you go on with your life when your every day is shaded by death? The House of Evangelista is right to call Pray out on his drinking, but they dont really have too many answers as to how better to go on when his body, his life, his friends are constant reminders of what seems like an inevitable outcome.

Thats what made his outburst during his intervention so painful. Whether calling out Elektra for her delusions of grandeur or sniping at Papi for riding Angels coattails, you got to see Pray wielding his sharp tongue on his loved ones with the same verve he no doubt reserves for himself. There was no generosity there, just the lashing out of someone in pain taking the blade hes been using on himself to hurt everyone around him. That his reads also echoed his stage presence and his role as emcee merely stressed how his acid-tongued performances always hid a darker way of looking at the world. But where amid the glitter of the balls, hed turned that skill into a shining moment of levity, here it was swallowed whole by the darkness that so consumes him.

Itll be interesting to see what a post-rehab and sober Pray looks like, both in and out of the spotlight. Lets just hope it gives Porter even more fabulous notes to play as he sketches out the final few episodes of one of televisions most fascinating characters.

Who are you calling queer? I am a proud transexual woman! I loved Lulus almost throwaway line during the intervention prep: It was a quick gloss on the way umbrella labels like queer can oftentimes obscure the specific lived-in experiences of those theyre trying to include.

Im still gagging over Elektras feathered ensemble. And Prays glittery romper.

I know the show has long framed Blanca as the central mother figure (she was called out as such by Pray himself in this episode), but can we take a moment to rejoice in Ms. Elektras excellent mothering skills? She may never get herself a Piet-like statue, but her no-bullshit, tough-love approach (with Lulu: The category is: seamstress!, with Blanca: You are every-fucking-thing!, and even with Pray: Think of your skin-care routine if nothing else!) remains especially welcome, especially during scenes when the shows writing risks becoming all too cloying.

Any show that manages to feature Toni Braxton, En Vogue, Janet Jackson, and Mariah Carey in a single episode deserves extra props.

Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!

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Pose Recap: Im Not Trying to Be Nice - Vulture

Round was led by Andrew Nikou, CEO of established private equity firm OpenGate Capital, who will join Goalswell's board

The funding will be used to help the company soft launch in Canada, conduct several large-scale pilots, and prepare for its global launch this summer

PASADENA, Calif., May 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Goalswell, Inc. today announced the closing of $1.5 million in seed round funding led by Andrew Nikou. Mr. Nikou is the founder and CEO of OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles and Paris-based private equity firm that was founded in 2005.

Research has shown that financial literacy alone does not drive long-term behavior changes. At a time when close to 70% of Americans do not have enough to retire and student debt exceeds $1.7 trillion, financial empowerment is more important than ever. Founded in March of this year and based in Pasadena, California, Goalswell seeks to help high school and college students develop healthy financial habits by leveraging the latest insights from behavioral science and cognitive psychology research. Led by Dr. Amanda Lash, the team's senior cognitive psychologist, Goalswell blends social goal setting with interactive and gamified learning of financial literacy to drive learning by doing.

"Developing healthy financial habits at an early age has never been more crucial," said Andrew Nikou. "Goalswell goes beyond teaching students financial literacy and actually helps them discover their own habits and behaviors will lead them to financial success. Most importantly, the gamification, competition and community aspects of Goalswell's not only differentiate it from other services, but also ensure that the lessons it teaches really resonate with its target demographic at this early age."

"We are honored to have Andrew, who shares our passion and belief in instilling healthy financial behavior at an early age, join Goalswell as an investor," stated Walter Yuan, CEO of MobLab, the parent company of Goalswell. "In addition to the capital infusion which will help us bring this innovative platform to market, he brings us financial acumen, an unparalleled network of potential resources, and practical business advice that I have no doubt will be immediately accretive to the company. I know I speak for the entire company when I say how excited we are for this next phase of our growth."

As a result of the seed round, Dan Goldstein, a renowned computer scientist and cognitive psychologist from Microsoft Research will also join the Goalswell board with Mr. Nikou and Mr. Yuan. Best known for his experimental work with real-world products on a large scale, Mr. Goldstein brings additional domain expertise in behavioral finance and deep know-how in information and choice architecture design to the team.

About Goalswell, Inc.Goalswell, Inc. is going beyond financial literacy to teach learners of all ages how to develop healthy financial habits by leveraging best practices based on behavior science and cognitive psychology research.Goalswell follows the same guiding principle of learning by doing for learners to practice personal finance management and social accountability in a mobile app oniPhone and Android devices later this summer. Goalswell is a wholly owned subsidiary of MobLab, Inc. For more information please visit: https://www.goalswell.com

About MobLabMobLab, Inc. is the EdTech leader in interactive behavioral games and their applications in education and career assessment. The company was founded in 2011 by a pair of Caltech scientists, Stephanie Wang and Walter Yuan, based on the concept that learning through experimentssimilar to what has always been done in biology, physics or even psychologycould also be applied to the study of more abstract subjects such as economics, business strategy, or the social sciences in general. The experiments, which can take the form of games, produce real-time analytics that empower teachers to engage students in data-driven discussions on how their behavior relates to theory. For more information please visit: https://www.moblab.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

[emailprotected]

SOURCE Goalswell, Inc.

https://www.goalswell.com

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Financial Empowerment Startup Goalswell Announces the Closing of a $1.5 Million Seed Round - PRNewswire

You may find this article stressful. At least, I hope you will. Because stress isnt something to avoid or flee: its a sign that were challenging ourselves, learning and growing.

Humans are antifragile: we need stressors to become strong. Astronauts must exercise daily or they lose muscle tone and bone density, and its the same with the mind: if we dont practise, we rust. The right amount of stress builds our capacity for resilience and enables us to cope with new and bewildering situations like the one weve been dealing with this last year.

But too much stress can have the opposite effect, sapping our resilience and ability to cope. No organisation should model itself on the pressure-for-its-own-sake mentality of some City firms, where workers are expected to put in 95-hour weeks and still ask, Twist-like, Please sir, can I have some more?

Neil Young sang that its better to burn out than it is to rust. Its better to do neither. Instead, we need to find the perfect amount of beneficial stress that keeps teams constantly engaged, learning and growing.

Good stress, bad stress

What does resilience mean to you? For many people, its the ability to stick it: to cope with pressure and not come unstuck. But whats often missed is the sense of recovery and recharging in the face of adversity or change.

Experiencing the right kind of stress builds this ability to recharge our ability to perform under pressure. We call this the challenge state, where our minds are perfectly prepared for whatevers thrown at us. When were challenged our thinking is far more likely to be creative, logical, clear-sighted and strategic. Whats more, a heightened state of alertness and vigilance makes us more consistent in our behaviours and performance.

Compare this with the threat state: the defensive, fight-or-flight response that comes when were overburdened and struggling to cope. Threat makes us freeze or flee from challenges and make us prone to bad decision-making, emotional reasoning, and catastrophising.

Threat state is particularly damaging in team contexts. A break in the chain can send out ripples that disrupt other individuals, tipping them out of challenge and into threat, damaging the cohesiveness and effectiveness of the group.

To foster resilience, we need a way to absorb shocks: the unexpected grenade lobbed into your already-busy working day, or what Harold MacMillan (supposedly) called events, dear boy. When the unexpected happens, we need to draw on the resources of the entire team, so stresses are spread evenly according to each individuals resilience.

Drains and gains

Its fair to say that buying a new vacuum cleaner wasnt a priority for most people when the pandemic struck. So Dyson could easily have gone into the threat state, halting operations and slashing costs in a bid to survive the coming crisis.

But the Dyson team did exactly the opposite. They went on the offensive and applied their skills to solving one of the biggest challenges facing the country: the shortage of ventilators for seriously ill Covid patients. Working around the clock, Dyson developed a new ventilator in just 30 days, to the eternal gratitude of the nation. This is a great example of an entire organisation operating in challenge state. But how did they get there?

Think of resilience as a battery. Just as it can be discharged by negative stresses, we can also recharge by identifying positive practices and mindsets. Examples of these gains are having a clear and shared sense of purpose, alignment on goal priorities, a collective identity and the ability to review and change goals rapidly. Conversely, a lack of common values, clear leadership or a focus on defensiveness and the short-term are examples of drains on our resilience.

Dyson clearly dont see themselves as mere manufacturers: they identify as problem-solvers. This subtle yet profound shift in thinking is used by everyone from businesses to top sportspeople to give them a crucial competitive advantage. Ask yourself whether your teams have coped with the crisis as effectively as Dyson did, or whether theyd have responded better had they been better able to maximise gains and minimise drains.

The stress toolbox

Shared purpose, common values, collective goals: these are words beloved in the boardroom (and rightly so) but you cant wish them into existence. Creating a culture of resilience starts with building a toolbox of techniques for fostering mutual support while enabling leaders constantly to assess whether employees are in the challenge state.

The first tool is the buddy system, which is not just a one-to-one relationship but a safe space for anyone to vent, raise questions and concerns, and support one another. But the buddy system isnt just about self-care: done right, it provides the opportunity for everyone to gain a perspective thats different from their own. This is especially important when were tipping over into the threat state, our judgement becomes clouded, and our thinking becomes defensive and self-defeating.

Secondly, implement a daily check-in system. Dont just ask people how theyre doing; most people answer with Im fine, but especially when theyre not. Instead, ask everyone to give themselves a score out of ten. Not only will this elicit more honest responses, it also enables leaders to predict how well each person is prepared for the rigours of the coming day, and help them identify who may be vulnerable and need support. This is the system used on many Covid wards, where team leaders also score workers at the end of shift.

Businesses thrive on data, so why eschew the most valuable information imaginable? Something as simple as tracking peoples resilience over time enables you to identify when people need to be pulled out of the frontline to recuperate, while the rest of the team picks up the slack.

The third tool involves building a sense of personal empowerment within each worker. This might sound vague, wishy-washy even. Its anything but. Empowerment is all about self-awareness, a quality thats not constant but which waxes and wanes depending on ones mental state.

At times of uncertainty, were apt to be self-critical and forget the value we bring to the team.

Empowerment rests on helping people build and retain an understanding of their skills, behaviours, knowledge and attitudes: how they contribute, and what they need from others to perform at their best.

You shouldnt expect to build a culture of resilience overnight, nor should you try. After all, you cant institute a workplace revolution before teams are ready to respond well to sudden change. But a small investment can have a massive impact, and what starts as a fairly alien process will soon become a natural part of peoples approach to work: an attitude, not a workflow. You will quickly see the benefits as teams begin to embrace stress and achieve mastery of the mind.

So if youre feeling a little stressed at the task that lies ahead, good. It means youre serious about developing a competitive advantage that will benefit your business for many years to come.

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Stressing The Benefits - Forbes

Lockdowns have changed social networks and, in some cases, strained relationships. Researchers at University College London found that 22 percent of adultsreported that their friendships had degradedduring the pandemic which might create a barrier when it comes to reaching out.

"Coming out of the pandemic, our interactions are going to be more strained, says Timothy Levine, chair and distinguished professor of communication at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It'll feel a little awkward at first, but it will become familiar pretty quickly.

Rather than continuing to isolate once it's safe to gather, Levine suggests being honest about your needs. It's OK to tell friends that you're only getting together one-on-one, outdoors orcontinuing to wear masksif that eases your anxiety about reengaging in social interactions.

While you might feel excited about getting back out into the world of dinners, celebrations and meet-ups, don't pack your social calendar too soon, warns Aderonke Pederson, M.D., a psychiatrist and instructor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Instead of parties and weekend trips, start with coffee.

"There is going to be a temptation to try to snap right back into our normal routines, she says. We're not robots; we can't switch back with an on-off switch."

Even brief social interactions with the best of friends might feel exhausting at first. For the past year, people have been on high alert, warned to avoid others and to avoid crowds or large groups of people. Pederson warns that the emotional toll of quarantine-induced social anxiety could cause you to burn out on social interactions faster than usual.

"It's so important for us to be patient with ourselves and the people around us. We need to pace ourselves through this process, Pederson adds. Burnout and the risk of depressive symptoms and anxiety come with trying to force yourself into a certain state of being when the emotional toll [of the pandemic] is very real."

Psychologist Robin Smith, author of Inspirational Vitamins: A Guide to Personal Empowerment who was therapist-in-residence on The Oprah Winfrey Show, refers to the pandemic as a form of trauma. In those initial social interactions, she encourages perseverance, adding, We can't assume that how we were a year ago is how we'll be today."

Smith calls it courageous to venture back into social interactions.

"Vaccines have come out and people are excited but a year in hiding, cloistered away, has taken its toll, she says. We need to be kind and gentle and soft with ourselves and with other people as we reenter social interactions.

Poornima Apte, 55, practiced self-described COVID absolutism over the past year, limiting contact with friends. She turned the garage of her Walpole, Massachusetts, home into an outdoor living room where she could meet with friends (mostly) outdoors while wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines.

The infrequent in-person social interactions coupled with texting and lots of Zoom gatherings helped Apte combat loneliness and stay in touch with friends, but she admits, A few friends fell off the radar and it was and continues to be difficult.

Although Apte compares the return to pre-pandemic social interactions with being told to jump from a fast-moving train without any safety net, she is looking forward to seeing loved ones again but she's not rushing to make plans. It definitely feels daunting to go back to activities as normal, she says. Trying to figure out the new rules is going to be hard, and I hope my friends patiently wait for me on the other side."

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5 Ways to Sharpen Your Social Skills After Isolation - AARP

Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies travel up to 3,000 miles from the U.S. and Canada to one forest in Mexico, where theyll stay for the winter. There in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, located on the border between the Mexican states of Michoacn and Mexico, they almost completely cover the trees and comingle until the spring, when they migrate back north, as their great-great-grandparents had done the year before.

Yet the number of monarchs that make this remarkable journey has been declining. Eastern monarchs, which are those that live east of the Rocky Mountains and make this annual trip, are typically measured by the area of the forest reserve they cover in the winter, which in the 1990s peaked ataround 21 hectares. Last December, the butterflies only covered 2.1 hectares of forest, a26 percent decreasefrom the same month in 2019 and a far cry from the minimum of6 hectares of coverage neededto ensure the species survival.

In total, the eastern monarch population is thought to have decreased by80 percent.And the western monarchs, a separate population that lives west of the Rocky Mountains, has gone down by a whopping99 percentwithin the last two decades.

But whats been the cause of this beloved species decline?

The WWF has reported afour-fold increasein illegal logging in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve between 2019 and 2020 as compared to the previous year, and this deforestation has certainly affected the monarch. Additionally, the butterflies are very sensitive tochanges in weather, which cue them on when to reproduce, migrate and hibernate and climate change is only seeing weather patterns become increasingly unstable.

But a main cause of their path to extinction is the decline of a native plant called milkweed (of the genusAsclepias) to complete their life cycle, and the loss of this plant through pesticides and changes in the landscape is a primary reason for the drop in numbers. Monarch caterpillars feed solely on the leaves of milkweed, which is commonly regarded as a weed by homeowners and farmers. Estimates vary, but it is thought that at least1.3 billion new milkweed stemsare needed to restore monarch butterfly numbers.

Agricultural lands make up77 percent of potential monarch habitat. In the past, milkweed grew in much of the corn and soybean fields grown in themonarch central flyway a major path that runs through the Midwest and southwestern U.S. that is used by eastern monarchs to migrate south and monarchs would travel across fields to lay their eggs across multiple milkweeds. Milkweed stems in farm fields support on average3.9 more monarch eggsthan those in non-agricultural areas.

The general concept is dont put all your eggs in one basket. [The monarchs] know there are predators out there. There are things that can happen to the milkweed, so theyre forced to keep moving on and find that next patch, says John Pleasants, an Iowa State University professor who has researched how farming practices affect monarch butterfly populations.

This was before the extensive use of glyphosates, one of the worldsmost widely used herbicides, on corn and soy fields. As intended, such herbicides have likely made crop fields become milkweed deserts, andnearly 40 percentof milkweed stems are estimated to have disappeared since 1999.

Given their effectiveness, herbicides like glyphosate are likely going to stay on farms in the near future. However, there might be ways to reintroduce milkweed onto farms without reducing crop output, such as by taking advantage of theConservation Reserve Program(CRP). The CRP pays farmers to take a portion of their cropland out of agricultural use to grow vegetation that is good for the environment, andalmost 8.5 million hectaresof farmland were active CRP lands as of January 2021. Farmers entering new CRP contracts can opt for theCP42, a CRP type specifically devoted to protecting pollinators, and at least nine species of pollinator-friendly wildflowers, legumes or shrubs must be planted to qualify.

Although milkweed loss on farmland has been linked to the decline of monarch butterfly numbers, Pleasants emphasizes the need to help farmers benefit from protecting the environment [Farmers] are not really to blame. Its not like they knew that monarchs would disappear if they used these farming practices that people told them they should use.

You have to think about the bottom line and whats in the self-interests of farmers, he says. They have needs, and times have been tough for agriculture lately, so they need some sort of either financial or personal incentive to do various things.

Fortunately, conscious growth of more native species has been gaining traction in more densely populated parts of the U.S. too.

A group of researchers from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service used LIDAR data to examine the possibility for four cities in the monarch central flyway to provide milkweed for monarch butterflies. The team, led by conservation ecologist Abigail Derby Lewis of the Field Museum, used asuite of tools developed to help city planners calculate estimates of current and potential milkweed stem numbers across any region according to land use type.

When the researchers applied the milkweed-calculating tools for the Chicago region, they were not surprised to find that residential areas presented the greatest opportunity for increasing milkweed stems. But when this was extrapolated to all U.S. cities east of the Rocky Mountains, what the team found was shocking: that urban areas could provide fornearly a thirdof the 1.8 billion more milkweed stems they regarded as needed for monarch survival.

Although urban residential areas might have the greatest potential to increase milkweed stems, other parts of cities should also come into play more, most notably corporate campuses and rights-of-way, which will entail collaboration with businesses, utility companies, the Department of Transportation in different states and railway providers. Under theMayors Monarch Pledge, city, local and tribal governments commit to creating habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

However, some have been concerned that cities might serve as ecological traps. For example, ithas been suggestedthat roadsides might be less suitable for monarch habitats because the butterflies may be hit by cars, or because the heavy metal pollutants emitted by vehicles could harm them. Derby Lewis also notes concerns over milkweed plantings potential to lure butterflies into places that undergo mosquito abatement spraying or that simply dont have enough milkweed to support them.

She notes, however, that resolving this dilemma will come down to community science, such as acurrent monitoring projectalso run by the Field Museum: People are just knocking down the door to be able to be a part of this research project. They go out every single week, and they count their milkweed, and they count the number of [monarch] eggs. They count the [developmental] stages of the caterpillars, and they count the number of flowering plants they have. They record that and submit it.

And thats really going to help us understand how productive these small gardens and small spaces can really be. We need empirical data to really answer [the ecological trap] question, but from what we know qualitatively, these are not ecological traps.

There are also steps that just about anyone can take to add some of the wild to their homes to help monarch butterflies survive, and a number of organizations, such asMonarch WatchandMonarch Joint Venture, have called for individuals to take action, such as byplanting pollinator gardens.

People are bananas for monarchs. And it is one of the most successful species that Ive ever seen at convening people through public attention and interest, says Derby Lewis. And thats great, because when you do things to help monarchs, youre helping all of these other species too.

Many organizations recommend that people plant native milkweed plants in their yards (or balcony gardens), as well as native nectar plants that provide adult monarchs with the energy needed for their epic journey south. Harmful chemicals should be avoided in pollinator gardens, and milkweed should be organic and free of neonicotinoids, a widely used insecticide that has been proven to harmpollinators such as bees.

However, Derby Lewis recognizes that there are some barriers. One is the public perception of what a garden and lawn should look like, which still entails the frequent mowing of grass-covered turf and the use of chemicals to keep unwanted weeds away, which is often reflected in legislation as well.

[Municipalities] will often have a height restriction as part of weed ordinances. So, for instance, anything over 10 inches would be considered a weed and therefore inappropriate to have on the landscape, says Derby Lewis. All of our native plants are typically 10 inches or higher.

In both urban and rural areas, it remains to be seen if these efforts will be enough to save the monarch butterfly. But despite the enormity of the task at hand, there is no doubt that these butterflies can serve as an entry point for many into the conservation world, and for self-empowerment.

So many things in the world right now feel out of our control, or feel like an individual action just cannot make a difference, says Derby Lewis. And so to be able to say, What we plant matters. What you do counts. If you put this milkweed into the ground, they will come, its something that is exciting for people.

Its gratifying and satisfying.

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Saving the monarch butterfly: What can be done? - Landscape News