2024 Monarch Butterfly Blitz Sets Records for Observations and Volunteer Efforts in North America
Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), 18 September 2024 — From 26 July to 4 August 2024, the 8th annual International Monarch Monitoring Blitz invited individuals, organizations and community scientists from across North America to collect data on monarch butterflies and the milkweed plants essential for their survival. This snapshot of the monarch butterfly and its breeding locations helps scientists better understand how to protect and conserve one of North America’s most iconic species.
Each year, monarch butterflies migrate up to 5,000 kilometers, facing multiple challenges along their journey, including habitat loss and impacts from climate change. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, monarch conservation efforts play a crucial role in supporting a wide range of species and ecosystems. Because monarch butterflies rely on natural resources shared with many other species, they serve as natural indicators of the overall health of the ecosystems they inhabit and pass through.
This year, volunteer participation in the Monarch Blitz broke all previous records. Over the 10-day period of the 2024 Blitz, more than 5,000 people across Canada, Mexico and the United States reported more than 16,000 monarch sightings and 68,000 milkweed plants. This marks a significant increase compared to last year’s nearly 1,800 participants. Data collected during the Blitz are published in the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network a repository of information that is available for anyone to consult and download.
The Blitz provides a unique opportunity for individuals and organizations to get involved and help collaborate beyond national borders to protect this emblematic North American species. Isis Howard, an endangered species conservation biologist from The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, shared why her organization participates as a coordinating partner for the Blitz every year: “Participating in the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz offers our community a unique summertime opportunity to unite in conservation, support the at-risk monarch butterfly, and team up with fellow nature enthusiasts across North America. It’s a fantastic opportunity to contribute to a continent-wide bioblitz and play a hands-on role in protecting the beloved monarch butterfly.”
By engaging people from across North America, the Blitz has shed light on the incredible journey these butterflies undertake and the challenges they face. As James Pagé, Canadian Wildlife Federation’s species at risk and biodiversity specialist, explained: “Canada is home to the most northern populations of monarchs meaning they also have the farthest distance to travel to and from their Mexico wintering grounds. The Monarch Blitz engaged people in this amazing migratory feat while providing valuable information on monarch and their milkweed host plants’ distribution. This is an essential bit of information as distributions may shift with climate change, especially here in Canada at the northern limit of where they’re found.”
Participating in an international effort for community science yields many positive outcomes for monarch education, conservation and science. As Jerónimo Chávez, project manager of the Correo Real Program at Profauna, A.C. highlighted: “In Profauna’s Correo Real program we work so that interest in Mexico in the monarch butterfly and its migration is maintained all year long. That is why the Monarch Blitz is very important to us: by promoting it, citizens and other social actors learn that organizations and institutions throughout North America are working together to generate key information to help us in the butterfly’s conservation. Furthermore, this initiative helps us boost environmental education and community science activities that will bring the subject closer to the community and involve more people in monarch conservation.”
In the words of Maxim Larrivée, director of the Insectarium de Montréal | Espace pour la vie and the initiator of several community science projects, including the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz: “By putting observation, documentation and the understanding of nature at the heart of their approach, community science activities create a powerful connection between wonder, the acquisition of knowledge and a sense of contributing. They foster enriching collaboration between the general public and scientists, and are thus, a remarkable tool in protecting the environment and preserving biodiversity.”
We would like to thank every person and organization that went out to nature and helped scientists and conservation experts in their efforts to monitor monarch butterflies and milkweed plants. The conservation of the monarch butterfly is a joint effort that requires international collaboration and the help of volunteers. Today, we celebrate the power of community science and the value of every individual contribution towards conserving our shared environment and protecting our biodiversity.
The Blitz is facilitated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and supported by the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, a collaboration of organizations including Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Insectarium de Montréal | Espace pour la vie and the Canadian Wildlife Federation in Canada, the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp) and Profauna, A.C. in Mexico, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Journey North and the Monarch Joint Venture in the United States.
For more information on this year’s results, visit monarchblitz.org or follow #MonarchBlitz on social media. You can learn more about the participating community science programs, below:
- iNaturalist.ca (Canada)
- Mission Monarch (Canada)
- Correo Real Program (Mexico)
- Naturalista (Mexico)
- Journey North (United States)
- Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (United States)
- Western Monarch and Milkweed Mapper (United States)
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About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.