Monarch Conservation

Saving the monarch butterfly: the feds have an offer for private industry

2020-04-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Saving the monarch butterfly: the feds have an offer for private industry

A partnership can help ensure this important species is protected in cooperative agreements, rather than through forced regulation that can actually backfire.

Monarch butterflies' declining numbers stem from habitat destruction blamed on factors such as last year’s Texas drought and wildfires and

The last thing we need right now is for one of the beautiful things in life to continue to disappear.

That’s what’s been happening for years now to the monarch butterfly, with its numbers declining precipitously as habitat is lost and other factors threaten it.

We have some good news on this front that involves the kind of partnership between government and industry that can help ensure important species are protected in cooperative agreements rather than forced regulation that can actually backfire on preservation efforts.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced the first national agreement of its kind that could see millions of acres preserved for monarch butterfly habitat by utilities, state transportation agencies, railroad companies and a number of other landowners. ......Full Story Here

Feds reviewing petition to save the Monarch butterfly

2015-01-31T15:31:00.001-08:00

http://m.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Monarchs-6052081.php

Monarchs make a rebound

2015-01-29T05:27:00.001-08:00

http://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Monarch-butterfly-population-makes-a-modest-6044282.php

How well-intentioned Americans trying to save monarch butterflies may actually be destroying them - The Washington Post

2015-01-25T06:59:00.001-08:00

How well-intentioned Americans trying to save monarch butterflies may actually be destroying them - The Washington Post

Sandy Parill: Coming to the rescue of monarch butterflies - Joplin Globe: Lifestyles

2015-01-25T06:56:00.001-08:00

Sandy Parill: Coming to the rescue of monarch butterflies - Joplin Globe: Lifestyles

Monarch butterflies...Are they really endangered? - Tri-County Times: Human Interests, Social News And Recipes: Fenton, Linden And Holly MI

2015-01-25T06:55:00.001-08:00

Monarch butterflies...Are they really endangered? - Tri-County Times: Human Interests, Social News And Recipes: Fenton, Linden And Holly MI

Where to See Thousands of Monarch Butterflies | Travel | Smithsonian

2015-01-25T06:54:00.001-08:00

Where to See Thousands of Monarch Butterflies | Travel | Smithsonian

Monarch butterfly and its environment in critical condition: IUCN November 23, 2014

2014-11-23T20:52:00.001-08:00

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The sanctuaries of the monarch are considered amongde dwx the four xwww w wdwwsxxqxdxdqxdxdwwdddexrecognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site in national soil, however, this region enters the list fpwq sz. fwcxss. Wdxgfxother natural places that require a conservation perspective. They are places around the world that the IUCN considers that face different potential threats affecting these sites as invasive species or impact of tourism, so it calls for taking measures so urgent and large scale so that the loss of value is prevented. This book along with the Mexican National Park Everglades US and Biosphere Reserve Rio Platano in Honduras are the only three places in America that are in This list, which includes several more places like parks Republic of Congo, the tropical forest of Sumatra in Indonesia and Reserves within the African continent.

The information presented by IUCN explains that 21% of natural World Heritage sites have a " Good "conservation perspective, 42% is classified as a perspective" Good with some concern "and 8% of sites are worth situation" Review ". Among the various values provided by these sites is that biodiversity is which faces the greatest threat levels. But not all sites are facing serious threats listed in the list of endangered sites, including the Biosphere Reserve monarch in Mexico, which IUCN qualifies as a "unique role to protect monarch butterflies during the winter is threatened by deforestation and agricultural activities. "The report shows that 54% of the evaluated sites are well managed, while expressing serious concerns about the quality of the management of 13%.

Effective management is often the key to ensure good conservation perspective despite the serious threats facing sites. The Monarch Butterfly Reserve is where quotas reach this species after making a voyage of more than 4 thousand miles from Canada to Mexico. The place is known for hosting a forest ecosystem with fir vegetation and where they find refuge million copies of this species belonging to the "royalty". The butterfly sanctuary covers 70 percent the territory of Michoacan and the rest is mexiquense ground.

The places annually receive tourists when they are open to the general public so they can admire the arrival and stay for almost four months of these insects. The habitat of the Reserve is characterized by three thousand meters above sea level, because it is one of the world's regions in winter provide them with special conditions for life as cool temperature, clouds and fog and trees that protect the hail and snow. The affected area could lead to the latest results of the monarch butterfly : last year they lost at least 33 million butterflies, so that the minimum was recorded as not even one hectare of forest covered According to a report issued by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, for its acronym. in English), the amount of monarch butterflies hibernate reaching Mexico suffered a fall of 43.7 percent this year, which is "alarming" for the conservation of this species.

The WWF said that although illegal logging and extreme weather, loss of milkweed plantations in the United States contributed to this dramatic decline and this is mainly due to large-scale use of herbicides. Photo: Cuartoscuro / Archive One of these herbicides Roundup PowerMAX name agricultural product is a herbicide produced by Monsanto that offers a "powerful" consistent weed control.. Although there is also the milkweed in Mexico, with which they feed, in addition to that failure to do so would cause an ecological imbalance in the forests of pines and firs of Michoacan and Mexico State. The Monarch first established in spruce for®\{®est or fir;¥}{{}{{\;ωrestricted distribution, protectedω from wind, wet slopes or canyons located between 2.400 and 3.600 meters of altitude. Over the months, colonies are slowly moving towards pine-oak forests, generally less dense.

Among the suggestions t@77emits the same booking when the sanctuaries4¥⊙open their doors, which is usually every 22 November, is to leave garbage, respect the rules and not ;€}£<<£¢them alive or d"3'42"##1ead. Betwe¢ω¥ωω}{{en local actions3";_ launched, was the creation of an application that records citizens butt}®{$"3;erfly sightings. Xddcggfx youaConabio (Conabio) together with the National Commission of Natural Areas (Conanp) launched an application website2_ called "Monarch Wanted" through naturalistic project that records real-time@6@ observations of butterflies in Mexico during their migratory route.
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Anyone can create an account and add any co mments you want to include a picture, video or sound file, the exact location of the sighting, latitudes and longitudes, if there was one or more of them, the correct time, the state of development (caterpillar, pupa or adult) and the activity carried out the insect. Other sites with a prospect evaluated as "Good "include the iconic Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch, National Park" "55"$#4#q Volcanoes Arenal and N amib. The Great Barrier Reef whose 2""@®@"fragile ecosystems and marine biodiversity are at risk, has been valued as a place of "high c"11@111_2@{@22"2oncern".

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Waystations help monarch butterflies on their long commute

2014-09-22T07:32:00.001-07:00

http://www.kentucky.com/2014/09/19/3437729/waystations-help-monarch-butterflies.html

Family documents step-by-step development of monarch butterfly

2014-09-22T07:30:00.001-07:00

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/outdoors/29974777-452/family-documents-step-by-step-development-of-monarch-butterfly.html#.VCAyaUxOkuo

Monarch butterflies depend on the milkweed to survive, but other insects also call it home

2014-09-22T07:28:00.001-07:00

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/gardening/article/Monarch-butterflies-depend-on-the-milkweed-to-5767077.php

Wild in the City: Monarch butterflies on the move across Toronto waterfront

2014-09-22T07:27:00.001-07:00

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news/insight/2014/09/21/wild_in_the_city_monarch_butterflies_on_the_move_across_toronto_waterfront.html

Honey bee shortage threatens nature's balance

2014-09-18T16:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.abc-7.com/story/26560574/honey-bee-shortage-threatens-natures-balance

Beekeepers feeling the sting of honey bee losses

2014-09-18T16:05:00.001-07:00

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news/gta/2014/09/17/beekeepers_feeling_the_sting_of_honey_bee_losses.html

A&M researchers, scientists push for monarch conservation | thebatt

2014-09-05T18:02:00.001-07:00

A&M researchers, scientists push for monarch conservation | thebatt

A&M researchers, scientists push for monarch conservation

Spring population expected to rise despite habitat loss

By Danielle Docherty

On September 3, 2014

photo by Jonathan Sheen

Craig Wilson, A&M researcher, said the monarch migration is in critical need of restored habitat.

It is a biannual phenomenon at risk of disappearing all together, but monarch butterflies are again poised to pass through Texas on a 3,000-mile journey from Canada to their wintering grounds in Mexico.

A recent University of Guelph study said 90 percent of monarch habitat has been destroyed, prompting many in the scientific community to seek government action. Although evidence from the spring migration points to a slight population increase, the monarch’s numbers remain dangerously low and many researchers are concerned with the migration’s survival.

“We’re at risk of losing a symbolic backyard beauty that has been part of the childhood of every generation of Americans,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biology Diversity, in a press release. “The 90 percent drop-off in the monarch’s population is a loss so staggering that in human-population terms it would be like losing every living person in the United States except those in Florida and Ohio.”

Curry’s statement came on the heels of a petition filed Aug. 26 by the Center for Biological Diversity and several partners to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. The petition claims that 165 million acres of habitat — an area roughly the size of Texas — has been destroyed. This area amounts to nearly a third of the butterfly’s summer breeding grounds.

Craig Wilson, senior Texas A&M research associate and butterfly enthusiast, agrees with the petitioners that breeding ground habitat loss is the main cause behind the migration loss.

While several butterfly generations make the spring migration, Wilson said the fall migration is unique because a single generation makes the full 3,000-mile journey. This magnifies the importance of the monarch’s habitat — there must be enough food to fuel a single butterfly generation.

Wilson said although milkweed, a wildflower crucial to the monarch’s reproduction, has become scarce, the fall migration needs pollinators such as Golden Rod to maintain the monarch’s energy needs.

“What is threatened is the migration, which is one of the most epic journeys in nature,” Wilson said. “Other butterflies migrate, but not the single generation, the 3,000 miles ... that is what’s quite incredible.”

Orley Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas, founded Monarch Watch, an organization concerned with monarch conservation. He greatly attributes the monarch decline to herbicide-resistant cash crops — farmers can spray their fields with herbicides and keep their crop intact, but the wildflowers critical to the monarch migration’s survival are killed in the process.

Climate change has also negatively impacted the monarch. Harsh winters and late springs over the past three years have limited the reproductive success of the summer-breeding population.

However, Taylor said he predicts modest population increases this year in both the migration and wintering sites. Taylor said he believes the positive weather conditions and an increase in the number of monarch sightings are supporting factors to his prediction.

Wilson predicts monarchs will make it to College Station by the end of September and will pass through until October. He also said to expect an encouraging bump in the monarch’s population this fall.

“All the factors I’ve researched indicate that there will be more monarchs migrating this fall and at the overwintering locations by mid December when the colonies are measured,” Wilson said.

Wilson said students can help the migration by planting wildflowers such as Lantana and Golden-Rod.

Christine Merlin, assistant A&M biology professor, studies long-distance butterfly migration and thinks student efforts to plant nectar and pollinator plants is crucial to the monarch migration.

“I think it would be terrific to have students involved in the development of forestation on campus,” Merlin said. “This campus is enormous. That could be a way to implement forestation where butterflies could nectar [and] where milkweed could be planted.
”

Sun Current | From egg to butterfly

2014-09-05T17:58:00.001-07:00

Sun Current | From egg to butterfly

The kids living around Marion McNurlen’s Morningside home love to set free the monarch butterflies raised by McNurlen.

Marion McNurlen holds the mesh lid where caterpillars have turned into the chrysalides that will eventually produce monarch butterflies. McNurlen finds the eggs on milkweed leaves, keeping them in her home until they turn into butterflies and are set free by the neighborhood children. (Sun Current staff photo by Lisa Kaczke)

Her 2-year-old granddaughter watches the egg become a caterpillar that turns into a chrysalis before letting the adult butterfly go in her grandmother’s yard.

It’s about teaching children so they’re interested and raising children who will be advocates for critters, McNurlen said.

McNurlen has let 60 monarch butterflies go over the past several years that she found as eggs and raised to butterflies in her home. Her love of monarch butterflies has turned a lot of friends on to raising them as well.

This has been her best year yet at finding eggs. Two years ago was too hot and many monarch butterflies died while migrating, she said. She found a few early on in the summer last year, but then didn’t find any more eggs for the rest of the year.

The monarch butterfly population has declined an estimated 90 percent in the last 20 years, and a petition was filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month to place the monarch butterfly on the endangered species list. The amount of habitat the monarch butterflies use in Mexico has gone from 21 hectares in 1996 to 0.67 hectares last winter as the population has declined, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The declining population is due to “deforestation, illegal logging, increased development, agricultural expansion, livestock raising, forest fires and other threats to their migratory paths and summer and overwintering habitats,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Monarch butterflies, Minnesota’s state butterfly, migrate 3,000 miles from the state to the warmer climate of Mexico, the only insect to do so. McNurlen puts it this way: A monarch butterfly weighing half the weight of a dollar bill flies to Mexico in a month.

Monarch butterfly migration is also a multigenerational feat. It takes four generations of monarch butterflies in a year to migrate from Mexico to Minnesota, but the fourth generation is the only one that migrates back to Mexico, McNurlen said.

“I think it’s a miracle,” she said of their multigenerational year.

McNurlen has always been an “outdoor gal.” After working with children with cancer as an oncology social worker, a job that comes with a lot of sadness, she decided she wanted to spend retirement volunteering outdoors with children. She works with preschoolers and school groups at the Richardson Nature Center at Hyland Lake Park Reserve in Bloomington, digging in the dirt and finding critters with the kids.

She also manages the group that checks for monarch butterfly eggs in the park.

McNurlen became fascinated with monarch butterflies when she visited the monarch butterfly sanctuary in Mexico in 2003. She learned more about the butterflies and realized she could easily raise them herself.

One in 20 monarch butterflies make it from egg to butterfly in the wild, but most of McNurlen’s survive to become butterflies.

Monarch butterflies only eat milkweed. The females also only lay eggs on milkweed, tasting the milkweed through their feet to ensure they’re on the right plant.

“All of that is what makes me crazy about them,” she said.

McNurlen checks the milkweed in her yard for eggs, found on the underside of the leaves. Several of her neighbors have milkweed in their yards and she knocks on their doors to check their milkweed for eggs, too.

She puts the leaf with the egg into a glass container covered with mesh in her house. The eggs last for five days before they hatch. Two weeks after hatching, each caterpillar turns into a chrysalis for 10 days before emerging as a monarch butterfly, tagged on their wing by McNurlen before she sets them free so they can be tracked. The entire process occurs in a container the size of a fish tank.

People can help by planting milkweed, McNurlen said. Save Our Monarchs, begun by Edina resident Ward Johnson, provides milkweed seeds through its website, including the first three seed packs for free. In addition to the Edina organization, residents who have milkweed can sign up to participate in the University of Minnesota’s Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. A map of monarch sightings, as well as children’s educational material on monarch butterflies, can also be found on Journey North’s website.

To raise butterflies, all people need is milkweed and a container, McNurlen said. She added that kids love watching the process and letting the butterflies go while learning about them.

“It’s rare to do something to help nature that’s easy,” she said.

Info: saveourmonarchs.org, MLMP.org and journeynorth.org

A flower fit for a monarch

2014-09-02T19:22:00.001-07:00

A flower fit for a monarch

Waterloo Region Record

By Editorial

A weed is merely a plant that grows where it is unwanted.

In the eyes of many farmers, according to conventional wisdom and until recently Ontario law, the common milkweed is what its name says it is — a weed, an enemy fit only to be destroyed.

But in the tiny eyes of the monarch butterfly, the milkweed is life. Adults drink nectar from its fragrant flowers. Females lay their eggs on the undersides of its leaves. And as for the caterpillars that will become the next generation of monarchs, the milkweed leaves are its sole source of nourishment.

No milkweed, no butterfly. Sadly, this scenario has been playing itself out in southern Ontario where, as both rural and urban communities waged war on the milkweed, the sight of the monarch, with its blazing orange wings, fluttering through the air has grown increasingly uncommon. These are remarkable creatures who each year, and over the course of generations, journey to and from Mexico. But their value goes beyond their beauty and charm. They are important in pollinating many plants.

Aware of the monarchs' decline, and eager to help them increase in numbers, humans have belatedly seen the value of the milkweed. Ontario removed it from its list of noxious weeds earlier this year. People are deliberately growing the plant in their gardens. And more monarchs are visiting us. Like beauty, what constitutes a weed is in the eye of the beholder.

Monarch butterflies get a little TLC at Kings County couple’s home | The Chronicle Herald

2014-09-02T19:20:00.001-07:00

Monarch butterflies get a little TLC at Kings County couple’s home | The Chronicle Herald

BROOKLYN CORNER — A monarch maternity ward, complete with milkweed feeding stations, is in full swing in tiny Brooklyn Corner, Kings County.

Larry and Alison Bogan have been operating a monarch butterfly sanctuary in their basement for the past eight years, nursing the brightly coloured insects to life, tagging some and releasing them into the wild.

“We started finding caterpillars in a patch of milkweed plants in 2006 when we let the field go to wildflowers,” Larry Bogan said during a brief tour of his home and surrounding land Friday.

“The milkweed spreads by the root and kind of took over the field. The monarchs just know there’s milkweed here and they come.”

So begins the interesting life cycle of the monarch. In the spring and summer months, eggs are laid on the leaves of the milkweed plant.

These eggs hatch after four days, producing larvae (caterpillars) that feed on the leaves for about two weeks.

Then a little miracle happens. The caterpillars enclose themselves in a silky covering, attach to something solid and hang upside down. They are now in the pupal or chrysalis stage with an adult butterfly forming inside. The adult emerges after about two weeks.

“We first saw them on our garage in 2008 and we had 50 of them underneath the eaves,” Bogan said.

“Now we go and look for eggs, take the whole plant inside and start to raise them.”

A monarch butterfly will take its first outdoor flight after being raised in the basement. (GLEN PARKER)

In the fall, the monarchs leave on a journey that takes them as far as the mountains in southern Mexico, where they roost over the winter. Around March, they fly to Texas. Three or four generations later, the monarchs are back in Nova Scotia.

“There are lots of predators that eat the larvae, including earwigs, spiders and crickets,” Bogan said.

“Only one in 100 make it to the adult stage. We’re trying to bypass that statistic by keeping them inside.”

The complete life cycle takes about a month.

The Bogans work with an organization called Monarch Watch, based in Kansas. They help keep track of Nova Scotia monarchs and take part in a tagging program. The tags are small, numbered stickers that go under a butterfly wing.

If a monarch is captured or found dead, that number can be traced back to the Bogan nursery and will show when the insect was released and shed some light on the migration route.

“It’s a good organization,” Larry Bogan said.

The couple has noticed a decrease in monarch population over the last four years.

“Like everything else, they go in cycles,” Bogan said, “but it’s a bit alarming.”

The Bogans has had as many as 200 monarchs leave their sanctuary in one season.

That number has dwindled to as low as 30.

“This year has been a good one for us,” Larry Bogan said. “Our success rate is high. We had 12 butterflies come out in one day.”

The couple tagged 25 this year.

“We’ve been naturalists, so we just picked up on this,” Bogan said. “We enjoy all aspects of nature.

“This is a fun hobby, one we will continue. We want to see the monarch population go up. I hope we’re helping.”

Family’s fancy fields monarch butterfly fleet - Toledo Blade

2014-09-02T19:17:00.001-07:00

Family’s fancy fields monarch butterfly fleet - Toledo Blade

Susan Garn picked up a monarch butterfly that had just emerged from its chrysalis Wednesday but couldn’t quite fly yet. She held it up in the palm of her hands and let it float away.

Susan Garn stands near the milkweed plants that the monarch caterpillars feed on at her Perrysburg home.
THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGTEnlarge | Buy This Photo

Motherly love is exactly what she gave 158 monarch butterflies that went through the Garn family protection service from egg to monarch. After tending to zero monarchs last summer because of freezing temperatures in Mexico, Mrs. Garn was worried this year would be the same. Then came late June when she found the first ones in the front shrubs.

A newly hatched Monarch butterfly dries its wings after exiting its chrysalis at the Garn home in Perrysburg.
THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGTEnlarge | Buy This Photo

“Grant, Grant,” she shouted to her husband before marking her calendar and calling her four children to tell them monarchs were laying eggs again this summer.

It was exciting news because the monarch population, according to Monarch Watch, which promotes the creation, conservation, and protection of monarch habitats from the University of Kansas, had an all-time low last year.

“We’‍re finding increased reports in all parts of the country,” said Chip Taylor, founder and director of Monarch Watch. “It is a definite rebound.”

Mr. Taylor said the monarch population is declining because of a loss of habitat, from a half a million to a million and a half acres a year in America.

The Garns, a retired couple who live in Perrysburg, do everything they can to keep monarchs coming back. They’ve encouraged others to get milkweed plants too, which is the only thing the monarch caterpillars eat.

Three times a day, Mrs. Garn checks the plants for eggs so she can protect them in a tub inside before insects eat the eggs first.

“I don’t have the eyesight to see those egg specks,” Mr. Garn said. “I’‍m the mechanical side of things.”

His role is to take the monarchs, while in the chrysalis stage, from inside containers to an outdoor clothesline. The outdoor clothesline has four rows of them ready to emerge into beautiful orange, black, and white monarch butterflies that will leave for Mexico.

Mr. Garn moves the chrysalises by delicately tying string around the top attaching part and then tying or duct-taping the string to wood on the clotheslines.

Mrs. Garn, two years ago retired from Perrysburg High School as a biology teacher, said even though she only sees them for a few minutes before they fly to Mexico, it is special. She compared it to having a short period of time to have a large impact on her students lives.

After they had no monarchs last year, the couple was excited to care for so many butterflies this year.

Tending to the butterflies is something hard to let go as the Garns’ soon leave to travel up north.

“I may sneak some in the car,” Mrs. Garn said in a whisper. “I just want to see what happens to them.”

Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2014/09/01/Family-s-fancy-gives-flight-to-monarch-butterfly-fleet.html#7Gl02S8fz74g7YmO.99

Bringing a Sense of Wonder to the Classroom With Butterflies

2014-09-02T19:14:00.001-07:00

Bringing a Sense of Wonder to the Classroom With Butterflies

The Monarch Teacher Network recently held a two day workshop in Meaford. Teachers from several Ontario school boards gathered at St Vincent Euphrasia Elementary to learn all about the Monarch Butterfly, a spectacular species at risk pollinator, and how to bring a sense of wonder into their classroom this September.

With support from the Toronto Region Conservation Authority and the TD Friends of the Environment, the Monarch Teachers Network volunteers brought together the story of the Monarch and education.

Participants learned about the life cycle, the scientific history of the search for Monarch over wintering sites and the proper techniques for rearing Monarchs through out their life cycle. Monarch Teacher Network was able to provide participants with the opportunity to tag Monarchs (with small specially developed stickers that have a specific identification number on them) which will allow the butterfly to be tracked through the Monarch Watch organization.

The workshop included many large scope environmental aspects such as habitat loss in Canada, the United States and Mexico, the removal of milkweed (the main diet for Monarch caterpillars) from the Ontario noxious weed list, natural predators to the Monarch, the effects of invasive species and human factors which are linked to the declining Monarch populations.

It was a great opportunity to also showcase the environmental stewardship that teachers at SVE have been leading for several years. Participants were able to release tagged butterflies into the well established butterfly garden behind the school as well as head to the back yard natural area of the school property to hunt for milkweed and caterpillars.

Workshop organizers stated that although there is a noticeable increase in the Monarch population this year, last year's decline is indicative of a worrisome trend in decreasing insect populations. The need to educate on environmental stewardship, habitat protection and climate change is extremely important. Building on the natural curiosity of children and adults is the best way to increase awareness and educate people of environmental issues on a local and a global scale.

Annual count starts for declining monarch populations — NewsWorks

2014-09-02T19:12:00.001-07:00

Annual count starts for declining monarch populations — NewsWorks

Cape May's annual Monarch Monitoring Project kicks off this week amid calls for the federal government to protect the iconic black-and-orange butterflies.

For the next two months, volunteers will count the butterflies making their southbound migration from Canada to Mexico as they pass over Cape May Point.

This year, the numbers they collect may be more timely than ever as conservation groups try to land the butterfly on the threatened species list of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sarina Jepsen is from the Xerces Society, one of the three conservation groups petitioning the federal government for protected status.

"There are numerous local monitoring projects and all are incredibly important," Jepsen said. "It's very challenging to monitor a broadly distributed species that covers so much of the landscape, so the more people that are involved the better we can compare those different counts to each other and hopefully come up with an accurate estimate of the monarch population."

Jepsen said monarch populations counted at wintering sites in Mexico have declined by about 90 percent in 20 years.

The causes, she says, are a loss of habitat and the decrease in available milkweed, the monarch caterpillar's only food.

Population numbers recorded over Cape May were unusually low last year, but have fluctuated widely over the past two decades.

Cape May Bird Association's Chris Tonkinson hypothesizes that is because a main factor hurting monarchs worldwide isn't as big of an issue here: the killing of milkweed plants by herbicides in Midwestern farm country.

"The monarchs that have made their way to the upper Northeast, as they come down the East coast they're not as exposed to that big agriculture phenomenon," Tonkinson said, "So there's a lot more habitat and milkweed for them comparatively."

The annual monarch count in Cape May continues through the end of October.

Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite that infects the Monarch

2014-09-01T10:11:00.001-07:00

If you raise Monarchs then you need to become familiar with something called 'Oe.' Oe is the shortened version of Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite that infects the Monarch (and Queen butterfly) world-wide.
http://www.learnaboutmonarchs.com/learnaboutoespore.html

After 90 Percent Decline, Federal Protection Sought for Monarch Butterfly

2014-08-31T06:41:00.001-07:00

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/08/26/18760735.php

Monarch butterflies dying — and Roundup is a suspect

2014-08-30T18:35:00.001-07:00

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2014/08/29/monarch-butterfly-decline-roundup-herbicide/14832497/

6 Common Monarch Diseases and Caterpillar Killers

2014-08-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

http://monarchbutterflygarden.net/common-monarch-diseases-prevention/