Monarch butterfly habitat—including milkweed host plants and nectar food sources—has declined drastically throughout most of the United States. Observed overwinter population levels have also exhibited a long-term downward trend that suggests a strong relationship between habitat loss and monarch population declines. To try and reverse this trend, there has been a call to action to engage in monarch conservation across all landscapes within the migratory pathway—and urban areas could play a critical role, but how?
The Field Museum, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have spent the last year working on an Urban Monarch landscape conservation design (LCD), or a “Monarch’s view of the city”, project in order to understand where cities can create monarch habitat, what makes good urban monarch habitat, and how organizations can work with decision makers to invest in monarch conservation in the city. To understand where cities can create monarch habitat there have been geospatial maps created for four cities, Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; Kansas City, KS/MO; and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. The maps highlight plantable space within the city that could be suitable for monarch conservation projects that benefit both people and pollinators. To get an idea of how much habitat could be added in these spaces the Field Museum and city partners have been surveying local habitats in order to understand the composition of flowering forbs, number of milkweed stems, and, in some cases, are monitoring for monarch butterfly productivity. Through the on the ground research we will get a better understand of what habitat could look like in an urban space. Through social science research the Field museum is identifying specific engagement strategies that organizations can use to get landowners and decision makers to convert their property into monarch habitat. This will all be wrapped up into a user friendly “how to guide”, or framework, that illustrates how other cities can create their own maps, and ultimately monarch conservation plans for their cities.
In order to make the framework as useful as possible for monarch conservation planning efforts, the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative is sponsoring a practioners workshop and bringing together local urban conservation leaders and communities engaged in urban monarch conservation efforts to help guide the final products for this project. Participants are expected to be technical expertise in community engagement and/or geospatial modeling/mapping. The objectives of the meeting are to:1. Obtain feedback and evaluation of the Urban Monarch LCD geospatial models for Chicago, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Austin, and Kansas City and check for replicability in other cities2. Share information and lessons learned from each organization working in the four cities and ask participants to share their experiences to inform the social science component/engagement strategies of the project3. Inspire organizations working in cities to utilize these resources for monarch conservation in their own cities.
