Save the Date! 2024 International Monarch Monitoring Blitz, 26 July to 4 August
Mark your calendars for the 8th International Monarch Monitoring Blitz! Every year, thousands of people from across Canada, Mexico and the United States join efforts to support monarch butterfly conservation by getting outdoors and collecting observations of monarch butterflies and milkweed plants. Be part of this vital trinational community science initiative by sharing your sightings from 26 July to 4 August 2024!
The Monarch Blitz invites people across North America to look for monarch butterflies and milkweed plants and examine them for monarch eggs, caterpillars and chrysalids. Monarch Blitz data are uploaded and shared via the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network, a central repository that combined data from various sources to assist researchers in performing large-scale temporal and spatial analyses. The data collected by volunteers like you help researchers answer key questions about monarch butterfly and milkweed distribution, the timing of their reproduction this year, and details about their habitat use. In turn, this information helps conservation practitioners identify and prioritize actions to conserve the species and its habitat.
To take part in the Monarch Blitz, please share your observations through one of the participating community science programs below:
- Journey North (journeynorth.org)
- Mission Monarch (mission-monarch.org)
- Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (mlmp.org)
- Naturalista (naturalista.mx)
- Correo Real Program/PROFAUNA A.C. (correoreal.mx)
- Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper (monarchmilkweedmapper.org)
Follow the Monarch Blitz on social media and share your love for monarch butterflies and your participation in this international conservation effort by using the hashtag #MonarchBlitz!
The Blitz is organized by the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, a collaboration of organizations, including the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), Insectarium/Montréal Space for Life, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Monarch Joint Venture, Journey North, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, PROFAUNA AC/Correo Real Program, and Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (Conanp).
Learn more about what we accomplished together last year and learn how you can get involved here.
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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.