SEAFWA 2017

AUTHORS: David Wolfe, Environmental Defense Fund

ABSTRACT: In 2015 the President’s Pollinator Health Task Force established a goal of increasing the Eastern monarch butterfly population to 225 million butterflies, which is roughly a two to four-fold increase over existing population levels. Achieving this goal requires the restoration of several million acres of high quality monarch habitat. For decades conservation organizations and government agencies have been using acres restored as a metric of progress made toward a species’ conservation goals. However, it is clear that all acres are not equal in terms of their contribution to a species’ life history needs, i.e., habitat quality varies from one site to another. To address this issue and more effectively measure progress, it is essential that a quality or “functionality” measure be incorporated into habitat goals. Environmental Defense Fund, the Monarch Lab at the University of Minnesota and Environmental Incentives recently collaborated on development of a Monarch Habitat Quantification Tool (HQT) that is capable of measuring the current functional value of monarch habitat as well as the expected functional lift achieved through restoration. Users input field data, in particular milkweed and nectar plant density and diversity, and the HQT provides an output in the form of functional acres. This output is subject to adjustment based on threats such as pesticide exposure. The HQT was field tested at farms and ranches in California, Texas and Minnesota in 2016 and subsequently reviewed by external monarch experts. The resulting HQT is currently being applied at pilot habitat restoration sites in several states.