Join this year’s International Monarch Monitoring Blitz from 28 July to 6 August 2023!

The International Monarch Monitoring Blitz invites community scientists from across North America to come together with the shared goal of helping to protect and conserve the beloved and emblematic monarch butterfly. Data collected by volunteers each year support trinational efforts to better understand the monarch butterfly’s breeding productivity, range, and timing in North America.

To take part in the Blitz, please share your observations of monarchs (all life stages) and milkweed plants to the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper (WMMM) via iNaturalist or our website https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/.

Additional information about the Monarch Blitz can be found here: http://www.cec.org/international-monarch-monitoring-blitz/

The Western Monarch Mystery Challenge is a community-science initiative that aims to collect data on western monarch distribution during the first breeding generations. Researchers expect that spring is a critical time for migratory monarchs, as it is when population numbers are lowest. However, data on monarch habitat use and breeding during this time is still limited. We need your help to fill in the gaps! The Challenge runs from February 14th - April 22nd, 2023.

Participation in the Challenge is simple - whenever you spot a monarch (outside of overwintering sites!), take a photo and either upload it to iNaturalist (tagging the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper project), the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper monarchmilkweedmapper.org, or email it to Washington State University directly at monarchmystery@wsu.edu. Be sure to include information on when and where you saw your monarch. Each week you submit a photo, you will be automatically entered to win a prize! Check out https://bit.ly/3wUZ6uC for more information.

Note all records from the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge eventually end up in Xerces' Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper project monarchmilkweedmapper.org which collects monarch and milkweed records from anytime, anywhere in the West. 

Press Release from Washington State University:

Scientists look to public for clues to recover monarch butterflies
February 11, 2021

Researchers created the “Western Monarch Mystery Challenge” to help inform conservation efforts for the plummeting western monarch population.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.— Migratory western monarch has declined by more than 99% since the 1980’s. The Xerces Society, an international invertebrate conservation nonprofit, reported that the total number counted in 2020 was down to 1,914, a drop by more than 90% from the prior year — a count already below the threshold at which scientists warned the migration may collapse.

To help scientists gain insight into migratory monarchs this spring, researchers are inviting the community to participate in the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge. The challenge was started by a group of researchers from Washington State University, Tufts University, University of California at Santa Cruz and the Xerces Society to help fill a critical gap in knowledge about habitat needs of migrating monarchs in the spring. Running from Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day) to April 22 (Earth Day), the challenge is a call to action to report a monarch if you see one. Once you report a sighting, you will be entered to win prizes.

“We are already receiving sighting reports, which is very exciting,” said Cheryl Schultz, a WSU biology professor and lead researcher on the project. “The reports show enthusiasm from our community and their deep connection to monarchs.”

How to participate:
If you see a monarch outside of overwintering groves, take a picture! (Don’t worry, it can be far away and blurry).
Report it through the following options, and be sure to include date and location:
-iNaturalist (the app is free)
-Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper OR
-Email it to MonarchMystery@wsu.edu

Be entered to win a variety of prizes every week you report a sighting.

“Our current focus is understanding the migratory part of the western monarch population,” Schultz said. “There are resident monarchs which live and breed year-round in parts of California. The migratory part of the population overwinters in the coastal groves and spreads across the western U.S. in the summer. These are the monarchs of greatest concern today.”

Scientists know that migratory monarchs spend winter months in groves along the California coast and that wild monarchs are breeding in central California by May. However, much less is known about where monarchs are in February, March and April. This gap is critical to understanding where and when to focus conservation efforts.

“We don’t know exactly where western monarchs are in spring, but we do know that this is a critical point in the life cycle,” said Elizabeth Crone, a Tufts University biology professor. “Monarch populations are smallest at this time of year and individual butterflies may be at their weakest right after their long winter diapause.”

Solving the mystery of where wild, migratory western monarchs are at this time of year is a way for Californians to make a contribution to conserving and restoring the monarch migration in the West. (Note: Reared monarchs are not part of this study.)

“The Monarch Mystery Challenge is an opportunity to get even more people to participate in western monarch community science–and these animals need our help right now, more than ever,” said Sarina Jepsen, conservation biologist at the Xerces Society.

Note: All data will be added to the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper, a year-round community science project tracking milkweeds and monarchs in the West.

To stay updated: follow the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Media contacts:
Lilianne de la Espriella, WSU communications coordinator, 561-929-7764, monarchmystery@wsu.edu
Cheryl Schultz, professor, WSU School of Biological Sciences, schultzc@wsu.edu

Join us and thousands of volunteers across North America from July 24 – August 2, 2020 for the 4th annual International Monarch Monitoring Blitz (the Blitz). To participate, simply go out and look for and report milkweed plants and all life stages of monarch butterflies (monarch eggs, caterpillars, pupae, and adults). To take part in the Blitz, submit your data to the program associated with your location:

–Canada: Mission Monarch

–United States:
--East of the Rocky Mountains: Monarch Larva Monitoring Project
--West of the Rocky Mountains: Western Monarch and Milkweed Mapper

–Mexico: Naturalista website

For this year’s Blitz, we feel compelled to underline that your well-being, and that of those around you, comes first. Before participating in any activities, please look up and carefully follow the health and safety measures for COVID-19 recommended by the authorities in your region.

Read more about the Blitz here.
http://www.namonarchs.org/international-monarch-monitoring-blitz/

Use the hashtag #MonarchBlitz to share your observations and connect with other volunteers.

The Western Monarch Mystery Challenge is a campaign running from February 14th to April 22nd, to collect more records of where western monarchs spend the spring in California, after leaving the overwintering sites.

Western monarchs are at less than 1% of their population size in the 1980’s and the situation is alarming. The Western Monarch Mystery Challenge is a campaign to find out where western monarch butterflies are in early spring. We know they spend the winter months (November to February) in groves along the California Coast, and start breeding in central California as early as February. However, we know a lot less about where they are and what they’re up to in February, March, and April. Solving the mystery of where western monarchs spend the spring is central to conserving and restoring the phenomenon of monarch migration in the West.

How to participate is simple:

-If you see a monarch outside of overwintering groves, take a picture! (don’t worry, it can be far away and blurry)
-Report it to iNaturalist OR email it to MonarchMystery@wsu.edu
-Be automatically entered to win a variety of prizes every week you report a sighting

If you upload a monarch photo - from outside the overwintering sites - you will be automatically entered in a weekly prize drawing. We will choose winners every week from Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) to Earth Day (April 22). Prizes will range from gift cards to REI or Patagonia to other goodies.

By reporting an observation, you will be adding to our community science program, the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper, a great way to see our knowledge of western monarch grow.

Here’s how the entry process works:

Each photo is an entry. So if you submit 3 photos in a week, that is 3 entries for the prize that week.
Each week you are eligible for new prizes, even if you submitted sightings and won prizes the week before. (No duplicates of the same monarch in the same place in the same week)

If you want to participate but do not see a monarch, you can be entered to win prizes by becoming a monarch ambassador. To be an ambassador:

Share the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge on social media
Use #monarchmystery and tag our accounts listed below
OR be a neighborhood ambassador through NextDoor - anywhere in California, particularly in the coast range and Central Valley where we suspect monarchs are most active in the spring.

*Please do not submit sightings from monarch rearing projects. They skew data and could jeopardize the quality and legitimacy of conservation plans. Only “wild” monarchs are to be reported.

Media accounts, hashtags, and contacts:
(bolded hashtags are necessary)

Facebook: @monarchmystery
Instagram: @westernmonarchmystery
Twitter: @wmonarchmystery

monarchmystery #citizenscience #citsci #communityscience #westernmonarchs #savethemonarchs #savemonarchs #savetheplanet #science #nature #climatechange

Please direct questions to:
Lilianne de la Espriella
MonarchMystery@wsu.edu
5619297764

PORTLAND, Ore., January 23, 2020—The Xerces Society today announced that the number of monarch butterflies overwintering in California remains at critical levels for the second year. The monarch population during the 2018–19 winter was an all-time low. Unfortunately, this year’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count numbers are no better.

The total number of monarchs counted this year was 29,418. Although this is 2,200 more than last year, it comes as a result of greater survey effort, with volunteers visiting more sites. There is no meaningful difference between the western monarch population this year and last.

In addition, in both years the population has been less than 30,000 butterflies, the threshold below which the migration may collapse.

“We are disappointed by the numbers of year’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving count,” said Emma Pelton, the Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Lead. “We had hoped that the western monarch population would have rebounded at least modestly, but unfortunately it has not. The silver lining is that the population didn’t shrink any further. There are still thousands of monarchs overwintering along the coast, so we can take heart that it’s not too late to act.”

Read the entire press release here: https://www.xerces.org/press/western-monarch-butterfly-population-still-at-critical-level
Read a blog about this here: https://www.xerces.org/blog/western-monarchs-need-our-help-more-than-ever

Western monarch researchers and community scientists have been busy, contributing information vital to understanding the situation facing this imperiled population of America’s most well-known butterfly.

Four new studies on western monarchs were recently published as part of the special issue of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution titled North American Monarch Butterfly Ecology and Conservation (the online issue has been gradually published since May 2019, and these papers are each available for free). A fifth study on western monarchs is also about to be published—more details below. All of these studies draw, at least in part, on the findings of community science projects like the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper—which has collected 53,097 records of monarchs and milkweeds in total, including nearly 500 sightings in 2019 alone.

To read the entire blog go to this link:
https://xerces.org/2019/07/30/new-western-monarch-studies/

Join hundreds of volunteers in Canada, Mexico and the United States, from 27 July to 4 August, for the 2019 International Monarch Monitoring Blitz (the Blitz) and be part of this regional initiative to help conserve the monarch butterfly. By participating, you can help monarch experts gain more information to understand the distribution of the migratory monarch butterfly in North America.

“Observations from the public can help scientists gain valuable information that will support regional efforts to protect the monarch butterfly and its habitat all along its migratory flyways,” said André-Philippe Drapeau Picard, Mission Monarch coordinator at the Insectarium/Montréal Space for Life.

For one week, the Blitz invites people across North America to go out to gardens, parks and green areas and monitor milkweed plants for monarch eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies. This information will help researchers identify priority areas for monarch conservation actions. Data gathered during the Blitz will be uploaded to the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network, where they will be accessible for anyone to consult and download.

To take part in the Blitz, go to Mission Monarch page if you are in Canada. If you are east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, follow the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project link, and if you are west of the Rocky Mountains, use the link for the Western Monarch and Milkweed Mapper. In Mexico, you can go to Naturalista. Or, simply follow the Blitz on social media, using the hashtag #MonarchBlitz.

Monarch butterfly overwintering sites were first recorded by scientists in California over 200 years ago and in Mexico in 1975. Since then, the monarch has become an emblematic species for North America. After an alarming decrease in its populations over the last 20 years, the eastern monarch population overwintering in central Mexico showed a significant increase this past winter. However, the population is still well below historic levels, which inspires questions about what conservation efforts are needed to continue this positive trend.

Meanwhile, the western monarch overwintering population along coastal California hit an all-time low this winter, with less than 1% of the historic population size remaining. Public participation in community science in the West is more important than ever to help understand and reverse this population’s dramatic decline.

“The majestic monarch butterfly, a flagship North American pollinator and symbol of international cooperation, needs your help with its spectacular annual migration across the continent. Join us by contributing to the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz,” says Cora Lund Preston, Communications Specialist at the Monarch Joint Venture.

The Blitz is an initiative of the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, created through the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Through the Blitz, scientists from the Insectarium/Montréal Space for Life, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Monarch Joint Venture, Journey North, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas(Conanp) are asking the public to help them understand monarch and milkweed distribution throughout North America.

Media Contact - CEC
Sarah Julien
sjulien@cec.org
514 781 2781

Monarch Project Lead - CEC
Georgina O’Farrill
gofarrill@cec.org

Blitz Coordinator - Insectarium/Montréal Space for Life
André-Philippe Drapeau Picard
xdrapan@ville.montreal.qc.ca

FACTS ABOUT THE 2018 MONARCH BLITZ

Community science, also called citizen science and participatory science, is the process by which non-scientists contribute actively and voluntarily to research projects.
486 participants across Canada, Mexico, and the United States
1,323 observations
53,588 milkweed plants monitored
13,796 monarchs observed
6,905 eggs
4,900 caterpillars
470 chrysalises
1,521 butterflies
FACTS ABOUT THE MONARCH

Monarch butterflies weigh less than a gram.
There are two recognized migratory routes in North America: Eastern and Western.
Migration covers 3,000-5,000 km (2,000 to 3,000 miles) that span over three countries.
The Eastern migratory population has declined by more than 80% in 20 years, while the Western population has declined by more than 90%.
Everyone can help the monarch by participating in community science, creating habitat and spreading the word.
COLLABORATORS
The Blitz is an initiative of the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, which includes the following organizations:

Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas
The National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) is an agency of the federal government of Mexico in charge of the administration of the protected natural areas. @GobiernoMX

US Fish and Wildlife Service
The US Fish and Wildlife Service is a leader in fish and wildlife conservation, known for its scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources. @USFWS

Insectarium/Montréal Space for Life
The Space for Life’s Insectarium is the largest museum in North America entirely dedicated to insects, immersing humans into the insect universe. @EspacePourLaVie

Monarch Joint Venture
The Monarch Joint Venture is a partnership of organizations working together to conserve the monarch migration for future generations. Journey North
Journey North is an international citizen science project of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum that engages citizen scientists in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. @journeynorth.org

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects the natural world by conserving invertebrates and their habitat. @xercessociety