Monarch Watch
Monarch Watch – Bring Back the Monarchs (BBTM) program
In 2012, Wild Ones began a partnership with Monarch Watch’s BBTM program. An outgrowth of the Monarch Watch Waystation Program, its goal is to restore 20 milkweed species, used by monarch caterpillars as food, to their native ranges throughout the United States and to encourage the planting of nectar-producing native flowers that support adult monarchs and other pollinators. The BBTM’s primary focus is gathering and propagating seed in an effort to increase the milkweed population throughout the United States. BBTM is concentrating on the 21 most common species of milkweed.
You can support this effort by gathering milkweed seed in authorized locations, cleaning the seed, preparing appropriate labels, and sending it to Monarch Watch for future use. Click here for additional details.
Monarch Joint Venture
Monarch Joint Venture (MJV) is comprised of a number of partners who are focused on preserving the Monarch butterfly. In 2012, Wild Ones became an official MJV partner.
Recognizing that North American monarch (Danaus plexippus) conservation is a responsibility of Mexico, Canada and the United States as identified in the North American Monarch Conservation Plan, this joint venture of over 30 partners works throughout the United States to conserve and protect monarch populations and their migratory phenomena. This is accomplished by implementing science-based habitat conservation and restoration measures in collaboration with multiple stakeholders. The partners include federal agencies, university botany departments, and private non-profits including nature centers and member organizations.
National Pollinator Garden Network
The National Pollinator Garden Network is a collaboration of national and regional conservation and gardening groups to support former President Obama’s National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators through a campaign to register a million public and private gardens and landscapes to support pollinators. Gardens registerd via the Wild Ones Native Plants Butterfly Garden Program will automatically be registered in the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge and have the opportunity to purchase a sign verifying their registration. Although the Challenge reached its one million garden goal in 2018, the Network continues registering habitat gardens for a goal of an additional one million gardens.
Citizen Science
Through its partnership with Monarch Joint Venture, Wild Ones promotes participation in a variety of citizen science programs throughout the USA related to the monarch migration. These include Journey North, Monarch Watch Tagging Program, Monarch Larva Monitoring Project and Monarch Project Health. Through scientific research and monitoring, we can better understand monarch biology, population trends, diseases, and habitat availability–factors that may influence the monarch’s decline. Visit Citizen Science to learn more about the opportunities available!
Moving for Monarchs
Moving for Monarchs is a collaboration of artists, scientists, and conservationists. Its initiative is to inspire the protection and planting of essential native plant pollinator habitat and preservation of the pollinators, the people, and the planet through dance – “The Dance of Life.”
Hometown Habitat
“Hometown Habitat“, Wild Ones Honorary Director Catherine Zimmerman’s video production, features several Wild Ones Hometown Habitat Heroes. Wild Ones Lifetime Honorary Director Doug Tallamy provides the narrative thread throughout film, which shows ”each individual has the power to conserve resources, restore habitat for wildlife and bring beauty to their patch of Earth.”
Viva Lundin Productions’ Jens Jensen The Living Green Experience
Jens Jensen is known for his “prairie style” design work which included not only natives, but natural materials. Viva Lundin produced a film about Jensen and his influence on landscaping.