Overview:

Since 2019, implementation of the Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan -2019-2069 revealed structural and organizational aspects that needed improvement. In response, the Western Monarch and Native Insect Pollinator Work Group (WMNIP) specifically dedicated time and attention to address these developments and sustain a proactive, multi-state approach to western monarch conservation.

To ensure the updated Plan represents the best available science and reflects the perspectives of conservation practitioners, the WMNIP hosted a virtual partners meeting in September 2024. The meeting included facilitated breakout sessions that yielded valuable feedback on Plan implementation, emerging challenges, and priorities for monarch conservation. Although overwintering and breeding habitats in California remain central to recovery efforts, the update process also included specific efforts to make the Plan relevant across the western monarch range.

This update includes a working definition of western monarch breeding habitat. In addition, the Xerces Society in collaboration with the USFWS, refined the definition of monarch overwintering habitat, which is incorporated in this revision. The Plan now encompasses the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, with Colorado and New Mexico newly represented in this update. Collectively, these states include the core and important perimeter parts of the western monarch range, spanning overwintering, breeding, and migratory habitats. The updated Plan integrates new scientific understanding of monarch ecology within each of these habitat types while identifying remaining knowledge gaps critical to future conservation.

This updated Plan refines habitat and population targets, incorporates emerging science, and identifies voluntary conservation actions aimed at stabilizing and recovering the western monarch population. Ultimately, this Plan is a representation of the working group’s shared vision for monarch conservation in the West and provides a coordinated framework for collaboration across partners, ecosystems, and jurisdictions.

Citation:
Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. 2025. Western monarch butterfly conservation plan, 2019–2069. Version 2.0.

Attached Files

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