Step outside, connect with nature, and be part of the movement to protect the monarch butterfly!

Montreal’s Espace Pour La Vie invites you to participate in the 9th edition of the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz, which runs from July 25 to August 3 2025. This is a unique opportunity for people and organizations in Canada, the United States and Mexico to come together beyond international boundaries to protect this emblematic North American species.

For ten days, the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz invites the North American population to locate milkweed plants and look for eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies in order to help estimate the size of the monarch’s summer population.

To take part, you need only transmit your monarch and milkweed plant observations via the Insectarium’s Mission Monarch program.

The monarch’s population has declined by 90% over the last 25 years, with the population size recorded in Mexico’s wintering grounds last winter being the second lowest on record.

Several factors are contributing to this sharp decline across the monarch’s breeding and migratory range: loss of breeding habitat, pesticides and climate change.

Since monarch and milkweed populations cover a great deal of North America, the participation of the population is essential for deepening our knowledge of these two intimately connected species.

These observations help identify priority areas for monarch conservation and guide concrete actions on the ground.

All data collected during the Blitz will be made available through the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network where it will support large-scale analyses by scientists, researchers and conservation practitioners.

With monarch conservation gaining momentum across North America, there has never been a better time for communities to get involved. Step outside, connect with nature, and be part of the movement to protect the monarch butterfly!

To take part in the Monarch Blitz, please share your observations through one of the participating community science programs below.

Canada:

• Mission Monarch (mission-monarch.org)
• iNaturalist Canada (inaturalist.ca)

Mexico:

• Naturalista (mexico.inaturalist.org)
• Correo Real Program (correoreal.mx)

United States:

• Journey North (journeynorth.org)
•  Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (mlmp.org)
•  Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper (monarchmilkweedmapper.org)
•  iNaturalist (inaturalist.org)

Follow the Monarch Blitz and share your participation in this international conservation effort on social media by using the hashtag #MonarchBlitz!

~Image by Pixabay on Pexels