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“In December 2022, Monarchs occupied 2.21 hectares, compared to 2.84 hectares at the same time in 2021, or a 22 percent decrease.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This number<\/a> is obviously not good news for the Monarch population. However, it did not dip as low as some predicted (read blog “Will This Year See a Drop? Waiting for the Annual Monarch Butterfly Count”)<\/a>. Estimates were given that the winter population might go as low as one hectare or less. I am happy to say it didn\u2019t dip that low. Also, western Monarch winter counts were on the rise<\/a>. Needless to say, insect population predictions are a very complex thing.<\/p>\n
Canadian Perspective<\/h3>\n
For the Canadian range, we know we can support between 10 to 17 per cent of the eastern Monarch Butterfly population (Figure 1, Flockhart et al.<\/em>)<\/p>\n
Figure 1. (Flockhart et al. 2017)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n If we focus on the core habitat in Ontario, estimates are around 5.2 per cent (Figure 2<\/em>). While this might not seem like a lot, it is comparable to the estimates for the state of Texas, which is one of the last states the Monarch travels through on its way to Mexico.<\/p>\n
Figure 2. Percent of Monarchs originating from each province or state. (Momeni\u2010Dehaghi, 2021)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
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The best way to support Monarchs is to focus on the summer population size.<\/a> We can support Monarch reproduction by creating more habitat. That means an all-hands-on-deck approach: restoring habitat in our yards, places of work, schools, and churches; along roadsides, utility rights-of-ways, and railroads; and in areas currently used for crops that aren\u2019t very productive like field edges. This habitat supports monarchs and thousands of other species in the same habitats.<\/p>\n
This is why the Canadian Wildlife Federation developed our Rights-of Way as Habitat program<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s an initiative whose goal is to support rights-of-way managers in restoring habitat for pollinators. Also, we aim to restore native meadows provides necessary resources for migrating Monarch Butterflies and helps store carbon in the ground.<\/p>\n
From my desk, I remain anxiously awaiting the Monarchs to arrive\u2026<\/p>\n
Learn more about the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s Rights-of-Way as Habitat Networks<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The newest winter counts for the winter population of eastern Monarch Butterflies have been released (March 21, 2023). “In December 2022, Monarchs occupied 2.21 hectares, compared to 2.84 hectares at…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":11793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,638],"tags":[740,83],"class_list":["post-12575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-endangered-species","category-fields-forests","tag-migration","tag-monarch-butterfly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12657,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12575\/revisions\/12657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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