Monarch Joint Venture

08/22/2026

08/22/2026

If you’re near Belle Plaine, MN this Saturday, come celebrate Butterfly Days Festival 2026 at Prairie Oaks, a free celebration of butterflies, pollinators, and the conservation efforts working to protect them! There's something for everyone, especially families, with a llama petting zoo and bounce house for the kids. Enjoy hands-on monarch butterfly and garden themed activities, including monarch tagging and garden rock painting. Be sure to explore the other organizations on-site to discover their work and find ways to get involved. Don't miss the Monarch Joint Venture store, stocked with monarch gear, books, and more.

08/21/2026

Do you prefer to learn at your own pace or with a live instructor? Comment and let us know!

In addition to self-paced courses, the MJV's Monarch NECTAR Hub offers instructor-supported self-paced courses and live interactive courses.

Check out all courses at the link in the comments.

08/21/2026

Some monarchs are on the move, but migration conditions change quickly as temperatures drop and nectar availability decreases.

Using community science data collected through the Monarch Watch tagging program, Taylor et al. (2019) found that monarch migration was most successful when timed with the sun's declining angle throughout the fall. Migration was most successful when monarchs followed a sun angle between 56.8° and 46.0° at noon (Sun Angle at Solar Noon, SASN). The SASN depends on latitude. Because the Earth tilts toward the sun at different angles during the year, the SASN shifts with the seasons and gets lower throughout the fall.

The dark green band seen on this map, representing the best chance for migration success, will move south throughout the weeks of the fall. Monarch adults located in this area have the best chance of successfully migrating to Mexico, although each year is different, and there are other variables such as weather that can affect migration.

Click the link in the comments to view the map and migration success at other times throughout the fall.

08/20/2026

Join us online from Aug. 24 - Sept. 13 for our popular Gardening for Monarchs and More course! This mostly self-paced course will walk you through the key steps to creating a vibrant, pollinator-friendly garden that supports monarch conservation and biodiversity.

The course consists of several videos to watch on your own schedule, plus 2 live sessions to ask questions and get feedback on your garden plans.

Register today the link in the comments.

08/20/2026

While most people think of gardening as a spring activity, fall is a great time to think about next year's gardens, especially as you watch monarchs fueling up for their migration south.

Planting native seeds in the fall is often the easiest and most successful time. Many native seeds need to stay in the cold ground over winter to "wake up" and sprout in the spring. This process is called cold stratification.

Fall planting also allows seeds to soak up winter rain and snow. In the spring, new sprouts can struggle to survive if the weather gets hot and dry too quickly.

It's also a great time to look around at what's blooming now and what monarchs and other backyard pollinators are visiting during the fall. When next September rolls around, what do you want your space to look like?

If you're looking for some inspiration, click the links in the comments.

08/20/2026

It’s officially that time of year. In western Minnesota, we’ve received our first roost reports of the season as monarchs cluster along their route to their overwintering sites in Mexico.

Monarch butterflies migrate alone during the day. They come down at night and gather in clusters, called roosts. These roosts are a sign that the migration has started.

This doesn't mean you won't still see breeding monarchs, eggs, or larvae. Monarchs that emerge before about mid-August do not enter reproductive diapause or migrate.

Photo: Journey North users in Morris and Lake Park, Minnesota

08/18/2026

This year, the Ohio River Foundation launched the 1,000 Acres Pollinator Habitat Project to benefit monarch butterflies, bumblebees, and other pollinator species.

This project continues to increase its number of partners working to create native pollinator habitat across Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Efforts of this project include targeted invasive species removal, burning, planting, and seeding to directly create habitat, hosting community workshops to engage the public, and working with public and private landowners.

Please help us welcome the Ohio River Foundation as the newest member of the MJV Partnership!

08/18/2026

Soil is the foundation of our ecosystems. How can we create healthy soils and apply the soil health principles in our pollinator and monarch habitat projects?

Find out in next week's free webinar on Tuesday, August 25th at 1:00 PM CT (2:00 PM ET | 12:00 PM MT | 11:00 AM PT)

Bring your questions and get ready to discover how you can get involved.

🦋Registration: Register once to receive access to all webinars in the series. Link in comments.
🦋Recordings & Resources: Following each webinar, we’ll email a recording link and any additional resources shared during the session to those registered.
🦋Webinar Archive: All webinars will be posted on our archive for later viewing

08/18/2026

We would like to give special recognition to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for their outstanding support of Miles for Monarchs. Their team didn't just participate—they turned their miles into direct conservation impact by pledging $1 for every mile traveled, up to $10,000. Together, they logged an impressive 33,016 miles, reaching the full value of their pledge and transforming their collective effort into meaningful support for monarch and pollinator conservation!