Given the disturbing decline in North American monarch populations, Canada has committed to protecting these butterflies’ summer breeding grounds, as a way of maximizing their reproductive success. However, there is not enough scientific knowledge available to come up with an effective conservation plan. In order to protect monarch habitats, we have to know where to find them. In other words, we need monarch-breeding data across the butterfly’s range. That’s where Mission Monarch fits in!
Mission Monarch is a community science program. This means anyone, with a scientific background or not, can share their observations and thus contribute to data collection. Using all milkweed and monarch records, researchers will be able to map where monarch breeding occurs, identify breeding hotspots, and inform conservation experts.
