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ByGillianFlaccus The Associated Press VISTA In California's drought, the struggling monarch butterfly may have found a sprinkling of hope. Suburban homeown- ers ripping out thirsty lawns are dotting their new drought-tolerant land- scapes with milkweed na- tive to California's deserts and chaparral — plants that have the potential to help save water and monarchs at the same time, because the female monarch will only lay her eggs on milkweed. Overall numbers of the majestic black-and-orange butterflies have dropped from 1 billion to fewer than 60 million over the past two decades as milkweed na- tionwide has fallen prey to development and pesticides. Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice announced $1.2 mil- lion starter investment to restore habitat; other na- tional projects aim to dis- tribute milkweed seeds by mail and build databases of breeding habitats as alarm grows. Whether by choice or by chance, ecologists hope California gardeners looking to save water can provide a boost to the but- terflies on the West Coast. "This is a really impor- tant way to provide really important habitat for a re- ally important butterfly," said Greg Rubin, president of California's Own Native Landscape Design, Inc. Nurseries are increas- ingly stocking multiple va- rieties of native milkweed and catering to customers who want to be drought savvy but also want to at- tract butterflies. Business was up 50 per- cent this season at Tom Merriman's native plants nursery in Vista, Califor- nia. Five years ago, Merri- man didn't sell milkweed at all; this summer, he sold more than 14,000 plants and is shipping truckloads of seedlings all over Cali- fornia and other bone-dry Western states like Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Dozens of monarchs flit through a butterfly atrium he built next to his green- houses and sometimes sneak inside his green- houses to lay eggs on plants awaiting sale. "If you plant it, they will come," said Merriman, who has a greenhouse stuffed with 8,000 milkweed of a dozen types. "We had chrysalises on shovels, we had them on wheelbar- rows. They were up in the nursery on palm trees. They were everywhere, under ta- bles. We were releasing 500 caterpillars a week on na- tive milkweed." Anya Shortridge bought a few milkweed plants last year for her drought garden. Now, she grows more than 100 milkweeds and carefully scans them for microscopic monarch eggs. When the eggs hatch, she feeds the tiny black-, gold- and white-striped caterpil- lars until they disappear into a shimmering, light green chrysalis where the mysterious transformation into a butterfly occurs. This season, she and her husband have released more than 100 butterflies into the wild. A sign in front of her house on a San Diego hill- top designates her garden as a "monarch waystation." "We're finding eggs — monarch eggs — on the un- derside of our milkweed leaves all the time, so if I wanted to I could proba- bly raise thousands," said Shortridge, who coos and cajoles the butterflies as if they were her children. Some experts, how- ever, are worried that Cal- ifornia homeowners who plant milkweed might ac- tually do harm by trying to do good. That's because manygar- deners unwittingly choose tropical — or so-called "ex- otic" — milkweed because of its colorful pink and yel- low flowers. The plants are more at- tractive than the desert va- rieties but could interfere with the monarch's famed migration. Native milkweeds go dor- mant in the winter, leaving the butterflies no choice but to complete their migra- tory journey. But the trop- ical varieties bloom — and provide a place to lay eggs — all year, distracting the females and interrupting migration patterns. MILKWEED PLANTS Mo na rc hs g et h el p fr om u nl ik el y so ur ce : Ca li fo rn ia 's d ro ug ht By John Rogers The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Sixty-one wingsuit skydivers have flown into the record books, creating a diamond-shaped formation while soar- ing over California before breaking apart and float- ing to the ground. The group set the record for the largest such forma- tion Saturday at Skydive Perris, 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles, Taya Weiss, the jump's lead organizer, said Tuesday. It shattered the old record set by 42 fly- ers in June. Weiss said the record was verified by a panel of judges from Fédération Aéronau- tique Internationale, the in- ternational group that keeps track of skydiving and other aviation-related records. One judge on the ground witnessed the jumpers leap from three separate air- craft at 13,500 feet, cre- ate the formation and then break apart at 5,500 feet. Two other judges reviewed photos of the jump later and confirmed Monday it was official. "It was an absolutely in- credible experience," said Weiss, who was also one of the jumpers. "We're a very small community, although we're growing, and to get everyone together from all over the world, especially to achieve such a difficult goal, is very rewarding." Wingsuit flyers from 12 countries — including the United States, Canada, Brit- ain, Australia, Russia, Po- land, South Africa and Is- rael — took part. Weiss said the flyers ac- tually broke the old record twice Saturday. After 50 people went out for a first jump there was time for a second one, so 11 more joined in. Skydive Perris was the site of another record ear- lier this month when 202 divers linked up to form the world's largest sequen- tial skydiving formation. Wingsuit diving differs in that skydivers wear spe- cial suits with pressurized wings attached to their bod- ies, allowing them to glide horizontally while they fall at a slower rate than regu- lar skydivers. 'INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE' 61 w in gs ui t sk yd iv er s se t fo rm at io n re co rd o ve r st at e MARKHARRIS—SKYDIVEPERRIS Sixty-one wingsuit skydivers set a new world record for the largest aerial formation in the sky over Perris about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. GREGORY BULL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tom Merriman stands behind a monarch in his butterfly atrium at his nursery in Vista. Alloffersforalimitedtime.Notallbuyerswillqualifyforindividualprograms.SeeRedBluffChrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ramforcompletedetailsandvehiclequalificationsforallcurrentlyrunningprograms.0%and1.9%APRfinancingarenot applicable on these new selected models. All rebates in lieu of special APRs offered by Chrysler. 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