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, Utah State University and Utah DNR joined the effort, creating a statewide community science project to identify naturally-occurring monarch breeding habitat throughout Utah and inform conservation efforts as part of WAFWA's Western Monarch Butterfly 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: utahpollinatorpursuit.org.