Three Countries, One Butterfly

A three-step recipe for saving the Monarch butterfly

Written by Greg Mitchell, Ph.D., Research Scientist with the Wildlife Research Division of Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Canadian Co-chair of the Monarch Conservation Science Partnership

Last year, while attending the Trinational Monarch Science Meeting in Mexico City, I got the chance to represent Canada when the overwintering population of monarch butterflies was announced. This was one of the highlights of my career to date. The population had increased from 2.48 to 6.05 hectares from the previous winter, a 144% increase! The joy in the room was palpable; everyone was smiling.

Fast forward to 2020, just one year later, and things are much different. The world is dealing with an unprecedented pandemic. We can, therefore, be forgiven if we missed this year’s overwintering count. The recent announcement by Mexico National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas; CONANP) and Alianza WWF-Telmex Telcel on March 13, 2020, stated that the overwintering eastern migratory monarch population has decreased from 6.05 to 2.83 hectares — that is a 53% decrease in one year.

Despite this setback, I think that we are taking the right steps in North America to ensure that the migratory monarch butterfly can thrive for generations to come. The following are my thoughts on what is working and where we might look for successes moving forward.

There are three crucial ingredients to monarch conservation: habitat conservation and restoration; continued monitoring; and trilateral cooperation.

The first and most important ingredient is habitat conservation and restoration in the three countries. As generations of monarchs migrate across the continent each year, they depend on different resources in each country. In Mexico, this includes the protected oyamel fir forests that they occupy all winter, but also flowers that provide nectar as monarchs funnel through Mexico to and from their wintering grounds.

Did you know that in Canada and the United States, the marginal natural land on your property or the garden at your house or on your apartment balcony can provide valuable monarch habitat as they migrate and breed?

As a general rule, try to plant native species and the milkweed species found in your area. Planting a butterfly and pollinator garden on your property is a great thing to do, and you can do it with your friends and family once get-togethers are safe again.

The second ingredient is the continued monitoring of monarchs throughout the three countries. We need to monitor monarchs to understand how their population is responding to our conservation efforts and where we should focus in the future. Another important reason to monitor monarchs is to identify new threats that they are facing. What we need is more data, and we rely on folks like you for this information.

We need all hands on deck! Everyone, including for example, farmers, gardeners, community groups, urban planners, folks managing rights-of-way, commercial landowners and community scientists alike.

There are many amazing community science programs in each country to count and monitor monarchs and milkweed. Here are a few recommended resources:

Monarch Conservation Toolbox is a resource we built with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s (CEC) monarch and pollinator conservation project that helps you navigate available programs.

The Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network is an open-source tri-national database that brings together results from monitoring efforts on monarch butterflies and milkweed. People can go and see what data is being collected and by whom. This portal was also developed through the CEC project and is available in English, French, and Spanish.

RedMonarca App is Mexico’s national platform for monitoring monarch butterflies in Mexico.

Monitoring Monarch Butterflies and their Habitat Across North America documents many of the monitoring efforts across all three countries.

International Monarch Monitoring Blitz is an initiative that provides a valuable snapshot for scientists of monarch population status across the monarch migration paths in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

The third important ingredient is cooperation through continued communication both within countries and across North America. There is a need to share monitoring data so that we can get a more complete picture of what is happening to the monarch population. This also presents an amazing opportunity to bring together experts from the three countries with diverse perspectives and backgrounds, which ultimately enriches our research.

In addition to generating new ideas and solutions, bringing people together to communicate about our challenges allows for a greater appreciation of the hurdles that each country faces.

I have been really fortunate to be involved in three CEC projects and have experienced the value of having different stakeholders get together face-to-face to share experiences, develop partnerships, and work towards conservation solutions. In this sense, the CEC’s role in Monarch conservation is largely to enable and facilitate trilateral cooperation. We are three countries with one butterfly that needs your help. I am extremely optimistic that we can move the needle forward on monarch conservation, despite the low population numbers this year. We will do this by protecting their habitat, monitoring their migration, and working together to tackle challenges across North America.

We all have a role that we can play, whether it is monitoring through the amazing community science platforms that are available, or restoring and creating monarch habitat on our residential, agricultural, and rights-of-way properties. It is hard to predict what activities will be possible this summer, but as soon as it is safe to do so, please participate in our conservation efforts.

Every little bit counts: The longest journey starts with a simple action.

The statements and opinions represented in CEC Medium articles are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the positions or views of the CEC or the governments of Canada, Mexico, or the United States.

Learn more about our work on the conservation of the Monarch butterfly here. Stay up to date with our other work on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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The Commission for Environmental Cooperation
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Written by The Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Official Medium account of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation — three countries working together to protect our shared environment.

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