HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition has plans to restore, or create, 12,000 acres of monarch butterfly habitat.

The coalition received $125,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help restore monarch butterfly habitat across Kansas.

The Hutchinson News reports that the foundation recently launched the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund to help restore up to 33,000 acres of monarch habitat in the country after the butterfly population dropped from 1 billion to fewer than 60 million over the past 20 years.

The coalition plans to hold informational meeting next year to educate ranchers about its project. Coalition coordinator Barth Crouch says the project aims to restore and enhance mixed-grass and tallgrass ecosystem functions and use invasive-species control and prescribed fire practices in the Red Hills and Flint Hills.