Mission Monarch

Mission Monarch is a citizen science project dedicated to monarch conservation across North America. It aims at locating monarch breeding hotspots by monitoring milkweed and monarch eggs, caterpillars, pupae and adults.

There are two populations of migrating monarchs in North America, and both have declined dramatically in the last decades. For that reason, the monarch is now listed as an endangered species in Canada and Mexico. Its breeding habitat must be protected, but we need detailed information to locate it. Since milkweed is the only plant on which monarch females lay their eggs and the food for the caterpillars, we need to know its fine scale distribution to protect the monarch.

That’s why we invite people to share their milkweed observations, noting the number of plants they examined, and indicate whether or not they saw monarchs.