Adoption of monarch models by the Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Great news.  The Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies is now adopting our maps as part of the basis of their Draft Monarch Butterfly Conservation Management Plan. It is great to see western states taking the decline of this iconic species seriously and starting down the path of planning to help ensure their long-term survival.  You can view their news release by clicking HERE.

I'm excited to announce that our draft manuscript is underway and that we expect submission soon.

Western Monarch and Milkweed Mapper - a great tool for all citizen scientists

I'd encourage everyone to visit the Western Monarch and Milkweed Mapper to log your monarch and milkweed sightings.  The website is maintained by the Xerces Society, and the data contained withing it has been the primary source of data for our habitat mapping effort.

https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org
https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/habitatsuitabilitymodels/

This morning I had the opportunity to join my daughter's second grade field trip to Betsy Donnelly Park where we spotted 3 narrowleaf milkweeds and 1 showy milkweed.  I logged them on the mapper.

There will probably be a huge rush of data as the professional scientists post their findings this fall, but it is really exciting and interesting to see monarch sightings in real time, so I'd encourage all of you citizen scientists and monarch lovers to post throughout the season.

Monarch butterfly and milkweed models the western U.S.

Today Matt Forister and I presented the results of our habitat modeling work for monarch butterflies and milkweeds for the western U.S. I've been involved in this research now since January 2017 and am very excited about having some preliminary maps and models ready. The work is an extension of the 2015 habitat modeling effort by Madeline Steele while she was at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Our work is a collaborative effort by University of Nevada Reno, the Xerces Society, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and others. I'm excited to get to work with such an iconic species, and I hope that through conservation and societal awareness of pesticides we can halt the decline of one of the most beautiful insect species in the world.