INTRODUCTION

Utahns have long enjoyed monarchs arriving in Utah in May – laying eggs and reproducing new generations into September and even early October. The majority of our human population is located along the Wasatch Mountain Range, where winter snowfall provides the water so desperately needed to sustain life in this high mountain desert.  As for our monarch population, we are lacking critical data on monarch breeding habitat in a vast amount of the state, due in part, to the fact that roughly 80% of the state is public land, and complicated by the fact we are the second driest state in the nation. We need to learn more.

Thanks to the help of some key monarch enthusiasts, Utahns are learning more about the plight of the monarch, and are jumping on the bandwagon to plant native milkweed and nectar sources where the habitat makes sense. In 2019, the Utah DNR joined the effort, creating a statewide citizen science project to identify where we have naturally occurring monarch breeding habitat throughout Utah in order to preserve what’s there, and potentially enhance it, as part of the US Fish & Wildlife Western Monarch Conservation Plan 2019-2069. We have much to learn, and many who care and are willing to help. To learn more, visit our statewide site: Monarch Conservation in Utah.

State of Utah Subject Matter Experts

Rare Plant Conservation Coordinator:  Mindy Wheeler (mindywheeler@utah.gov) for the many native milkweed species in Utah

Rare Insect Conservation Coordinator:  Amanda Barth (abarth@utah.gov) on monarchs

Front row: Becky Yeager, Rose Greer, Mindy Wheeler, Jennifer Dowd

Back row: Rachel Taylor, Todd Stout (missing Amanda Barth)

RAE Environmental  and Western Monarch Pollinator Pathways

MONARCH NEWS IN UTAH