Monarch Habitat Monitoring and Management: A Scalable Approach to Regional Conservation in the Cosumnes Watershed
The Cosumnes River Watershed is one of twelve BLM Priority Restoration Landscapes in the western US. This region acts as an important stopover habitat for migrating monarchs, yet there is much to be learned about the spatiotemporal patterns of monarch activity, habitat quality and availability. In this newly-funded project, MJV will facilitate enhanced regional monitoring, working closely with land managers to define conservation priorities and research design.
The goal of this project is to document the seasonality of monarch presence and activity within the Cosumnes River Watershed, while refining a scalable protocol for evaluating monarch activity across similar landscapes. By examining how monarchs interact with habitat and water features at this scale, this study will provide land managers with temporally specific best management practices that may be transferred or modified for similar regions.