Idaho Fish and Game is looking for volunteers to survey milkweed patches and count monarch butterflies across the state this summer. Populations have been dwindling over the past decade and scientists aren’t sure why.
So, how does one count butterflies?
Fish and Game wildlife biologist Tempe Regan says there are a lot of different ways. Counting them as adults, as they flutter about, can be tricky and more opportunistic. The more systematic way to count the butterfly population is by focusing on caterpillars and eggs, which can be found nestled in milkweed – a hardy plant with bunches of yellow or purple-ish flowers known for their sticky white sap. There are about 5,000 patches of milkweed across Idaho.
“We are asking folks to visit our web page and they can adopt a patch to survey. Then that patch will be surveyed by them completely throughout the survey season,” Regan explained.
People can look at a map of available milkweed patches and choose the patch they want to volunteer to check three times over the course of the summer, looking closely at the stems to spot caterpillars and eggs.
“We hope that folks will do one visit per window. So the first survey window is July 1 to July 15. Then July 16 to the 31. And then August 1 to August 15,” she said.
Over the summer, some patches might not make it. They can be trampled by cattle, or taken out by wildfires. Roadside mowing and spraying can also impact milkweed, so does the rising temperature.
Since the department's last large-scale survey in 2014, biologists have observed fewer milkweed patches, and that’s a problem.
“You can't have monarchs without milkweed, because the larval stage of monarchs rely 100% on milkweed for their full life cycle until they emerge as adults,” Regan said.
Their numbers can be a symbol of the health of our food systems.
“One in every three bites of food that you and I consume comes from something that was pollinated by an insect, not necessarily a butterfly, but by an insect,” she added.
Regan said monarchs, with their fat colorful larvae and iconic spotted black and orange wings, are great ambassadors of pollinators.
She says people might think: “It’s just a bug, who cares about bugs?”
Unlike other more charismatic ‘megafauna,’ insects are harder for people to relate to, even though their role in the ecosystem is vital.
“It's incredible that these ephemeral butterflies have this magnificent generational, almost like epigenetic knowledge that's being passed down for this amazing migration,” the wildlife biologist said with wonder, describing their multigenerational journey from Idaho to Northern California and back again each migratory season. East coast monarchs travel even longer distances when they migrate from Maine to Central Mexico to reproduce in warmer climates.
“If you're conserving and providing healthy habitat for monarchs along that corridor, think about the impact that you're having a hundredfold on all of these other insect and pollinator species,” Regan explained.
The scope of the survey would be cost prohibitive without the help of the community. Involving the public, Regan said, is a way to remind people of the importance of conservation in general. Monarch butterflies provide biodiversity in the landscape.
“They were always here. And why shouldn't they not be here in the future?” she said. “Having more species on the planet makes our world more diverse and more beautiful.”
Fish and Game is hoping to survey a thousand patches this summer. The survey starts on July 1. More information on the Milkweed and Monarch Butterfly Survey can be found here.
