Following the dramatic decline of migratory monarch populations in North America, the monitoring and protection of the butterfly’s breeding, nectaring, and staging habitat throughout the Canadian range was identified as a conservation priority.
In this regard, Space for Life has been mandated by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to design a monitoring protocol and sampling grid to optimize monarch research and conservation efforts in Canada. The objective of the protocol is to characterize potential monarch habitats and to track their presence and activities while following standard procedures. The protocol includes a variety of monitoring activities including: 1) a milkweed and blooming plant survey, 2) an immature monarch survey, and 3) an adult monarch survey.
Largely inspired by the American Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program (IMMP), but adapted to the Canadian context, this new protocol will allow for continental scale analysis given its compatibility with U.S. protocols.
With the new Expert component of the Mission Monarch program (Mission Monarch – Expert), Canada now has a standardized monitoring program that can be used by conservation professionals and skilled community scientists to collect geographically and ecologically representative data.
