Help protect the monarchs by participating in tracking efforts
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Like bees, Monarch butterflies serve as pollinators in the food chain. Their population decline prompts concern.
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By Lake County Conservation District
CHARLO — At the February Conservation Speaker Series at Ninepipes Lodge, Beth Waterbury presented “Monarchs & Milkweed.” The following is from her presentation.
Monarch butterflies perform one of the most amazing feats in the natural world — a long-distance migration of up to 3,000 miles completed “relay-style” by 4-5 generations in a single year, undertaken by animals weighing less than a single gram (about the weight of a paperclip).
But this epic migration is on the verge of collapse. Once numbering in the range of a billion in North America, monarch butterfly numbers have plummeted to near-record lows over a span of three decades – to the point they are now a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Several factors are implicated in the monarch’s population decline, including loss of breeding habitat, development and logging of overwintering areas, and erratic weather associated with climate change.
Want to earn your stripes as a Citizen Scientist collecting data for efforts tracking monarchs and monitoring habitat in your community? Beth Waterbury has provided these links to explore, where your actions can be part of the solution.
WMMM project is for all non-overwintering monarch observations (generally from March-late October) and all native milkweed observations throughout the year: https://www.inaturalist.org
Help track monarchs and milkweeds across the West through the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper (WMMM): https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/
Journey North is a citizen science program that focuses on migratory organisms, including gray whales, hummingbirds, American robins, whooping cranes, and monarchs. The project seeks to help scientists and the public understand how migratory species respond to climate and changing seasons by tracking the journeys each year.: https://journeynorth.org/
