Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Monarch Butterfly is divided by the Rocky Mountains; Eastern and Western.

The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count is a yearly effort of volunteer citizen monitors to collect data on the status of monarch populations overwintering along the California coast. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of a cadre of volunteers, we have over a decade of data demonstrating that monarchs have undergone a dramatic decline in the western U.S. This effort is coordinated by Dennis Frey, Shawna Stevens and Mia Monroe.
Would you like to participate in the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count? We are looking for volunteers in California who can commit to visiting the same overwintering sites year after year. If this interests you, please contact Candace Fallon for more information.
We encourage Thanksgiving Count monitors to also fill out a brief, one-page habitat assessment so that we can understand more about what monarchs need and begin to track changes that occur at overwintering sites. Please consider using this form in addition to your count data sheet so that we can collect this invaluable information!
Habitat Assessment
Please remember that we are most interested in counts of monarch groves conducted during the week around Thanksgiving and the week around New Years day. You can download survey instructions and data sheets below.