Stewardship and Conservation

While the monarch butterfly is not an endangered species, it’s migration if considered an “endangered natural phenomenon.”  The following resources provide helpful information in promoting monarch stewardship and conservation. 

Journey North's Best Butterfly Gardening Web Sites
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/unpave/monarchWWW.html
Butterfly gardens are easy to plant, and you can design one that gives monarchs habitat throughout their breeding cycle.

Monarch Butterfly: North America’s Migrating Insect
http://www.fs.fed.us/monarchbutterfly/conservation/index.shtml
This U.S. Forest Service web site provides a list of the many government agencies, organizations, and individuals across North America that are working on projects to conserve monarch habitats and the migration phenomenon. Also, check out the list of “Things You Can Do” at http://www.fs.fed.us/monarchbutterfly/do/index.shtml.

Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation
http://www.mbsf.org/
The Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation (MBSF) is working to develop a model economic program by working with one ejido,  which is a group of local families, that owns land in the Sierra Chincua sanctuary, the largest and most pristine Monarch overwintering area in Mexico. MBSF ties economic aid, in the form of educational and economic development, to decreasing the number of trees cut in the forest.

Monarch Watch's Monarch Waystation Program
http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/
To offset the loss of milkweed and nectar sources, Monarch Watch encourages people to create, conserve, and protect milkweed/monarch habitats.   "Monarch Waystations” can be established in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides, and on other unused plots of land. Without a major effort to restore milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch population is certain to decline to extremely low levels.

North American Monarch Conservation Plan
http://www.cec.org/files/PDF/BIODIVERSITY/Monarch-Monarca-Monarque.pdf
Monarchs depend upon a wide range of habitats in Canada, the United States and Mexico, thus conservation of their migratory phenomenon requires trilateral cooperation. The North American Monarch Conservation Plan (NAMCP) is intended to provide a long-term cooperative agenda for conservation of the monarch butterfly.

Michoacan Reforestation Fund
http://michoacanmonarchs.org/
The Michoacan Reforestation Fund and La Cruz Habitat Protection Project work to protect monarch butterfly habitat and improve the well-being of Mexican communities through reforestation.  They provide high quality pine and oyamel fir trees to highland communities in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico.