7th International Monarch Monitoring Blitz: A Success
Journey North Volunteers In Focus
International cooperation and volunteerism play a crucial role in protecting monarch butterflies. The International Monarch Monitoring Blitz offers a unique opportunity to work together across borders to develop more effective strategies for conservation. For the past three years, Journey North volunteers have contributed their time and expertise, fostering a global community dedicated to safeguarding monarch habitat and monarch migration. We are deeply grateful to all who have contributed to these Blitz events. This year, 1,449 volunteers submitted 3,288 observational reports. We created this visualization to provide an overview of your observational reports. Please be aware we have posted this visualization to Tableau Public. The visualization is best viewed on your desktop (or via a static pdf version).
View the Tableau Public visualization of Journey North contributions>>
You made the Blitz a success! Thank you.
Message from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)
The CEC shared the official press release for the 2023 Monarch Monitoring Blitz.
Montreal, 11 September 2023—From 28 July to 6 August 2023, the 7th annual International Monarch Monitoring Blitz invited community scientists from across North America to collect data on monarch butterflies and milkweed plants across the monarch butterfly migratory range. This snapshot of the monarch breeding population helps scientists better understand how to protect and conserve one of North America’s most emblematic species.
Over the 10-day period of the 2023 Blitz, 1,789 individuals, across Canada, Mexico and the United States, monitored more than 40,000 milkweed stems and reported seeing more than 13,000 monarchs, all stages combined. Data collected during the Blitz are published in the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network repository and are available to anyone to consult and download.