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Data shows monarch population shrinking despite recovery effort
Monarchs on milkweed. (ISU photo)
Researchers at Iowa State University say the continent’s monarch populations appear to be shrinking, despite vigilant efforts in Iowa and elsewhere to help the fragile butterflies recover their numbers.
Steve Bradbury, an ISU entomology professor, says the survey released last month of overwintering monarchs in Mexican forests dropped about two acres from a year ago.
“It was at about five acres of occupied forest canopy and our long-term goal is 15 acres,” Bradbury says. “People were hoping they were going to go up but weather conditions during different parts of the migration, especially the spring migration, knocked the numbers down in the U.S. and that sort of cascades.”