The international monarch monitoring blitz is about to begin.
The goal is to track the current state of the monarch butterfly population. People are encouraged to visit gardens and parks to monitor milkweed plants for eggs, caterpillars and insects.
"If society stops caring about conservation about iconic animals like the monarch is, we lose a part of our humanity in some ways," said Maxim Larivee, head of research and collections at the Insectarium. "That's really at the core of it. It reconnects people with nature. It engages them in what is a scientific effort, for a family to be able to share this with their kids, for a community to do that and engages, really. It brings them closer to what is core and essential now. It's really putting the environment at the forefront of everything in society."
Efforts to help the butterfly population seem to be working – there was more than a 140 per cent increase in monarchs from last year.
More on the Monarch Mission here.
