Spreading love, sharing seeds

From a small kitchen table in a humble San Jose, California townhome to rural Michigan and beyond, learn how Liam López-Wagner started Amigos for Monarchs with his family. Scroll down to learn more!

Liam the Lepidopterist believes every day is Earth Day and holds this annual Amigos for Monarchs milkweed and assorted flower seed-sharing project each spring and early summer.

While Amigos for Monarchs began in California in 2019, as Liam looked to help the western monarch which has seen sharp declines in population numbers in recent years (the eastern monarch is also declining in population), his love of butterflies and moths began much earlier and it continues to grow.

In the project’s first two years, Liam shared more than 200 milkweed seed kits with friends, family and perfect strangers to help start monarch-friendly gardens within that period.

In 2021, the project’s third year alone, over 800 milkweed seed kits were distributed. Liam reached his goal of sending 500 kits early and a tremendous growth in interest came in thanks to the reporting of Justin Bachman of 13 On Your Side. Our family heard from people across the states who learned about Amigos for Monarchs from radio segments to TV news and social media shares. It wouldn’t have been possible if not for Justin, a multimedia journalist who took an exceptional amount of time and care in interviewing Liam and created a broadcast news story which went viral that summer— with some stations calling Liam "the butterfly boy" and "west Michigan's youngest conservationist." As a result of the coverage, between June and November, Liam sent over 300 more seed kits out across the nation and even to Canada, with care and he even hand decorated as many of the envelopes as he could along the way, coloring monarchs and landmarks from the places where they were going.

In 2022, the project's 4th year, Liam surpassed his goal of sharing 1,500 milkweed seed kits to help the monarchs. Thanks to the growing awareness of Amigos for Monarchs, Liam the Lepidopterist was interviewed by Scholastic News editor Keri Acer and was featured on the May/June edition of Scholastic News Edition 1! In 2023, Amigos for Monarchs was featured in the June edition of Highlights Magazine.

Now, in 2024, our family will have a very busy spring and summer season preparing milkweed seeds for sharing as thousands of requests have come in via Liam’s seed request link and snail mail (thank you, Lowell Michigan USPS for your time)!