Good afternoon. I'm Chip Taylor, Director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas.

As many of you know, Monarch Watch is an international organization dedicated to conservation, education and research. We promote the use of monarch butterflies in schools to improve science education and to increase awareness of the complex issues surrounding the conservation of monarchs and other species.

We also enlist the public in research projects to further our understanding of monarch biology. Our collaboration with citizen scientists and students has been extremely productive, resulting in a number of scientific publications and reports. The results of monarch tagging, which you are here to participate in today, have been particularly valuable and have even lead to a new theory about the factors controlling the migration.

Conservation of the monarch migration is a significant concern. In good years, as many as 500 million monarchs in eastern North America migrate to Mexico, where they overwinter in Oyamel Fir forests on mountain tops in a relatively small area west of Mexico City. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's wonders, yet the continuation of this phenomenon is threatened by deforestation in Mexico, habitat loss in the summer breeding range in the United States and Canada, changes in agricultural practices, including the use of genetically modified crops, and global warming.

Our goals at Monarch Watch are not only to draw attention to these threats to the migration but also to evaluate the impact of human activities on monarch populations. If we are going to protect the monarch migration, we need to develop a baseline for the population that is to know the size of the population and to identify those factors that cause monarch numbers to decline or increase. The tagging program is helping us get these answers.

Each year, Monarch Watch issues 250,000 tags to schools and volunteers. These assistants, including tens of thousands of children, tag approximately 70,000 monarchs each season. The data from recoveries of tagged monarchs in the United States and in Mexico enable us to--

1) Determine the origins of the monarchs that reach Mexico

2) Calculate the mortality of monarchs during migration,

and

3) Estimate the overall size of the migratory population.

In the future, data on population size and dynamics will be extremely important in determining whether the monarch populations are declining or increasing as a result of human activities. 

To be really effective, our program has to reach all portions of the monarch population and, in particular, we need to have greater involvement from citizens in the northeast, especially in New York. That's why we're so excited that you are here today.

Many questions remain to be answered about the monarch migration. Tagging monarchs during their migration is providing answers to some of our questions while giving participants an opportunity to contribute to a scientific endeavor and connect each fall with a wondrous natural phenomenon.

I hope you enjoy this event and will join us in protecting and studying monarchs in the future. Special thanks to New York City Parks' Commissioner Henry Stern, Chief Alexander Brash of the Urban Park Rangers, and Richard Stadin, of Mastervision and thanks to all of you for your participation today.

Dr. Orley Chip Taylor
Department of Entomology
University of Kansas