An update on this Citizen-Science based Research Program

Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest, an unfunded citizen science re- search project investigating the migration dynamics of Monarchs in the PNW, was established in 2012 and is now an important player in Monarch science in the US.

The Facebook page associated with the project has more than 4000 followers and provides regular updates on Monarch news and tagging recoveries. The project has been featured in one recent book on citizen science and will feature in others to be published in the next year or so. Much attention has been given to the original citizen scientists who worked on the project who happen to be incarcerated in Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla!

Tagging Results from our First Five Years

Six years after the project commenced, we have a solid foundation of data on fall Monarch migration in the PNW. A scientific paper detailing the results obtained during our first 5 years of tagging will be published shortly in the Journal of the Lepidopterists Society.

A total of 13,778 Monarchs were reared and tagged by myself and citizen scientists in WA, ID and OR during 2012-16. In addition 875 wild Monarchs were also tagged. Sixty (0.41%) of these Monarchs were re-sighted or recovered from distances greater than 10km. The majority were found in California with an average distance flown of 792.9 km. The greatest distance traveled was 1360 from Yakima, WA to Goleta, CA. While most Monarchs flew SSW, S or SSE, one flew 724 km SE to Brigham City in Utah. This one was clearly not heading to California for overwintering and may have instead been heading towards the Mexico overwintering sites. Curiously, no Idaho-tagged Monarchs were found in California and none of the wild-tagged Monarchs were recovered. All of the recoveries were of reared Monarchs.

Thirteen Monarchs were recovered en route to California during migration showing a mean travel rate of 35.1 km/day. Forty nine tagged Monarchs from OR and WA were found in 24 overwintering colonies in California, located from Bolinas in the north to Carpinteria in the south. While our tagging focused on fall movements, a limited tagging effort on wild spring migrants in northern CA resulted in one recovery in Twin Falls, Idaho, 707 km ENE from the release point along the Trinity River.

In 2014 the Federal Government was petitioned to protect the Monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act. This petition (while still pending) has raised awareness of the Monarch and the problems it faces among the general public. To a great extent, the Monarch has become the flagship species for pollinator conservation (warmer and friendlier than bees!) and more people than ever before are now growing Milkweed and trying to help Monarch populations rebound from their current low levels. This increased public awareness of Monarchs is evident in the increased number of tag recoveries we have observed since 2012. In our first two years we recovered just 0.06-0.12% of the 1700-2400 butterflies we reared, tagged and released. By 2016 the recovery rate had grown to 0.91% of 3500 butterflies released. This has increased even further in the current tag recovery season (not yet ended) which stands today at 1.3% of 6500 tagged and released.

Tagging Results From 2017

After waiting five years to accumulate enough tag recovery data to publish, I find it somewhat ironic that in the current 6th tagging year, I have more data from this year alone than from the previous five years combined! No matter, the new data will appear in a follow up paper! As I write this, I have had 84 tag recoveries of Monarchs tagged and released in Washington and Oregon during August-October 2017. And there is still time for more to be reported! Seventy two of the recoveries are from distances greater than 10km and qualify as definite migratory movements. Seventeen originated in Washington and one of these released in Redmond flew to Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo, CA, claiming the award of longest flight recorded to date by a Washington Monarch (1392 km). Forty six Monarchs tagged in Oregon have been recovered in CA to date, but again as in the previous 5 years, no Idaho-tagged Monarchs have been found in CA. Many of the tagged Monarchs released in 2017 were released into smoky and unhealthy (for humans) air. We were all concerned that the smoke might interfere with navigation and/or survival of migrating Monarchs. Happily this appears to have been an unfounded fear with many happy, healthy tag recoveries that had been released during major smoke episodes.

Monarch Advocacy

Participation in this project by citizen scientists has grown incredibly over the past few years, particularly in southern Oregon where we now have 30 people who annually rear and tag Monarchs. We also have growing numbers of taggers in central and northern Oregon and in Idaho. Monarch advocacy groups have been established in southern Oregon (SOMA: Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates) and Idaho (AIM: Advocates for Idaho Monarchs). Curiously, less interest has been shown by citizen scientists in Washington aside from our core incarcerated citizens who still annually rear 500-1500 Monarchs, and a small group of Cowiche Canyon Conservancy members in Yakima. I think it’s time to get some more WA citizen scientists on board!

Do You Want to Rear and Tag Monarchs?

Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest and the Washington Butterfly Association are planning to partner in a Monarch rearing and tagging program in 2018 for WBA members residing in the Seattle and Spokane areas. So this will be your opportunity to rear some Monarchs and share the wonder with your family and friends while participating in a citizen science project that will help inform future conservation efforts for Monarchs. You will also be helping to increase the Monarch butterfly population by rearing Monarchs indoors that might otherwise have succumbed to natural mortality factors outdoors. Details are still being worked out and will be announced later but rearing will take place in August and early September. If you are in Seattle, milkweed availability may be an issue, but many nurseries now stock various milkweed species so if you are potentially interested in being part of this Monarch rearing program, you should obtain and propagate some milkweed plants as soon as possible.

Other Monarch-related activities for WBA members this year include our annual tagging of wild Monarchs at Crab Creek in Grant Co. in August and a possible field trip over the Memorial Day weekend to the Trinity National Forest in northern California to tag Monarchs migrating north along the Trinity River. This location also offers a large and diverse butterfly fauna usually numbering 30-40 species.

Reversing the Monarch Decline

Sadly, the Monarch overwintering populations in California have further declined this year. Official numbers from the Thanksgiving Count have not yet been released but are likely to show a significant drop from 2016-17. While we still don’t know the precise cause of Monarch decline, it is likely that reductions in the availability of milkweed in the western US, is an important factor. Natural (from weather) and unnatural damage to overwintering sites is not helping: at least one overwintering site, formerly home to 5-20,000 Monarchs each winter, has recently been chain-sawed. Clearly, Monarch conservation still has a long way to go before we can claim to have reversed the downward trend in numbers. The great and increasing awareness of Monarchs and associated participation in activities designed to help sustain and increase breeding populations, is a hopeful sign that we can bring back Monarchs to their former abundance in our western landscapes.

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