For people, the holidays are a season of gathering, reflection and giving thanks. For monarchs, winter is also a time of gathering and waiting for the next journey that awaits them. As you think of monarchs congregating this winter after their arduous flight south, we encourage you to take a moment to reflect on the multitude of conservation efforts that make it possible for this phenomenon to continue. We are grateful to all our supporters and partners who will continue to drive this work for years to come.
2015 has truly been a monumental year for monarchs. Monarch conservation projects have been taking place across the country with more attention and resources than ever before. We have seen an unprecedented coming together of diverse organizations, individuals and agencies collaborating to preserve the monarch migration for generations to come. This year, the Monarch Joint Venture partnership grew to 37 organizations ranging from federal agencies to nature centers. Together we are creating and restoring habitat, teaching everyone from schoolchildren to land managers about the importance of protecting monarchs and pollinators, and researching and monitoring monarch populations and habitat to discover the most effective ways to preserve an iconic species.
Partners have been planting and training farmers in the fields of the Midwest, recruiting and training monarch citizen scientists in Texas and other key areas, filling abandoned lots with milkweed in Ohio cities, and studying monarch parasites and non-native species management in sunny California and the southern U.S. Seventy monarch stories were shared this year on the MJV Monarch Habitat Success Stories Map, contributing to the newly launched White House initiative, the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge. We encourage you to explore the many more MJV partner projects and resources available on our website, and hope you’ll consider a year-end donation to the MJV to support the continuation of our work.
We’re proud of the accomplishments of MJV partners in the past year and look forward to continuing and expanding these efforts and future partnerships. Thank you to everyone who supports our partnership; it is with your support that we are helping more monarchs take flight. We wish you a new year filled with butterflies and pollinators and an abundance of habitat that supports them!
Happy holidays from the Monarch Joint Venture!
Photos contained in this article may not be reproduced without permission. The content in this article does not necessarily reflect the positions of all Monarch Joint Venture partners.