A Monarch Watch Visit to the Monarch Reserves in Mexico

Some months ago Dennis Curtin, a writer of ebook instruction manuals on how to use specific cameras, contacted us concerning an ebook he is creating about monarchs. One communication and idea led to another as we discussed the development and marketing of his book. One of the book’s deficiencies at first draft was an absence of coverage of the overwintering monarch colonies in Mexico, and the obvious solution was to invite Denny, with his great camera skills, to join us on our March trip to Mexico. We learned a lot about Denny on this trip. Not only does he have a camera at hand most of the time, but he is a compulsive blogger. Each morning as I awoke I found him hunched over his computer punching out words with two fingers to capture the events of the previous day. Denny has compiled all of these daily jottings along with a kazillion photos into a journal describing the whole adventure:

Monarch Watch has a 9 year old fan

It’s always nice to hear about how Monarch Watch touches people’s lives…

Just thought I’d let you know how much Monarch Watch has influenced my 9 year old daughter. We’ve enjoyed visiting your tent at the Powell Garden’s Butterfly Festival for several years now. Last month, my daughter Zoe chose to participate in a local Science Expo and made her display on monarchs.

She even passed out fliers she made that said “Take Some Seeds Plant Some Milkweed” and included a small packet of seeds with each one. She was really proud that her display and fliers were very popular. This year she plans to make our butterfly garden an official Monarch Waystation.

Thanks for doing such a great job educating the public about monarchs. You’ve helped foster a love of science as well as gardening in my child. And I have no doubt that she’ll continue to be a monarch advocate throughout her life.

– Laura Darnell

That’s a great display Zoe – we (and the monarchs) thank you for your continued support!

Monarch Butterfly Conservation Talking Points

There are several organizations concerned with monarch conservation and among these is the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), a tri-national consortium of more than 90 affiliated organizations (pollinator researchers, conservation and environmental groups, private industry, and state and federal agencies) from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The major goal of the NAPPC alliance is to develop and implement an action plan to “coordinate local, national, and international action projects in the areas of pollinator research, education and awareness, conservation and restoration, policies and practices, and special partnership initiatives; facilitate communication among stakeholders, build strategic coalitions, and leverage existing resources; and demonstrate a positive measurable impact on the populations and health of pollinating animals within five years.”

I have been a member of the NAPPC Steering Committee since its inception in 2001 and two years ago a Monarch Task Force was created to address issues associated with monarch conservation. The following document was crafted over the last few months by members of this task force with input from other monarch experts – contributors are mentioned at the end of the document.

Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico each fall from Canada and the United States to overwinter in forested areas in mountains west of Mexico City. This migration is truly spectacular and is one of the most magnificent and intriguing of all natural phenomena. The very existence of this migration is under threat due to illegal logging at the overwintering sites in Mexico and the loss of habitat due to development, land management practices and chemically-aided agriculture in the United States and Canada. These talking points further describe the value of the monarch migration, the benefits of conserving monarchs and the steps needed to conserve the monarch migration.

1. As the world’s most spectacular and conspicuous long distance insect migration, the monarch migration has scientific and cultural value and should be preserved.

Monarchs utilize a broad geographic range during their unique and spectacular annual migration. This trans-boundary species is threatened by habitat loss in all parts of their range in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

2. Conservation of monarchs will benefit pollinators and many other plants and animals.

Monarchs can serve as international and iconic representatives of all pollinators. Monarchs use resources common to a large number of pollinators, and the size of their population therefore reflects, in part, the health of the environment for pollinators in general. The security and stability of our food sources and ecosystems are dependent on healthy pollinator populations, and conserving monarchs will protect the habitats for an abundance of species.

3. Understanding the status of the monarch population will help us evaluate many ecological problems, including climate change.

Decreasing monarch numbers resulting from habitat loss indicates other ecological problems at local, regional and international levels. Thus, better understanding of monarch needs and factors that impact their populations can have broad environmental benefits. Because of our understanding of the climatic requirements for monarchs during their annual cycle of breeding, migrating and overwintering, changes in the timing and location of monarch life stages provide indicators of climate change. Recognizing the realities and manifestations of climate change will provide the basis for adaptive strategies designed to help maintain biodiversity and the integrity of ecosystems.

4. Many existing educational and conservation programs focused on monarchs are available and need additional audiences and support.

Government agencies and many non-governmental conservation and educational organizations in the United States, Mexico, and Canada are committed to supporting monarchs. Additionally, there are many opportunities for the public to engage in monarch research via several citizen science programs. All of these efforts need additional support to further engage the public, schools, nature centers, municipalities and government agencies in efforts to create habitats for monarchs.

5. Preservation of the monarch migration will require cooperative efforts to protect, restore and create monarch habitat.

Sustaining the monarch migration will require extensive efforts to educate the citizens and decision makers of Mexico, the United States and Canada of the value of the monarch migration and the necessity of protecting, restoring and creating monarch habitats. The cooperation of citizens, institutions, municipalities, government agencies and decision makers within these agencies will be enlisted in this effort. The North American Monarch Conservation Plan provides a blueprint for and commitment to action.

6. Financial and scientific support for monarch conservation is crucial.

In order for monarch conservation to succeed, we must increase our knowledge about monarch ecology and develop support for implementing research-based conservation measures. Funding is needed to support basic research on habitat restoration in different regions in each country. Also in need of funding are the educational, conservation and research programs focused on monarchs that are so critical in engaging the public and educating both the public and decision makers about the monarch migration. Of particular importance in the United States is better understanding of the distribution and abundance of milkweeds and nectar plants used by monarchs as well as knowledge of how to restore milkweeds to habitats from which they have been eliminated.

Monarch Task Force
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
Special thanks for the preparation of this document to Task Force Co-Chair Karen Oberhauser, Ph.D. University of Minnesota; Task Force Co-Chair Donita Cotter, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Chip Taylor, Ph.D. MonarchWatch; Kathie Christie, Pollinator Partnership; Robert Lamb, Pollinator Partnership; Brad Stirn, Pollinator Partnership; Larry Stritch, Ph.D., US Forest Service; Wayne Wehling, Ph.D., USDA APHIS; Harriet Crosby, Farview Foundation; Marietta Eaton, Bureau of Land Management, Lincoln Brower, Ph.D., Sweet Briar College, and Elizabeth Howard, Journey North.

Monarch Watch Trip to Mexico (overview)

We have just returned from our annual trip to Mexico to purchase tags recovered at the overwintering sites. This is just a brief overview of the trip – a more detailed report will be posted soon.

1. We purchased about 1,000 tags – some 400 over budget. We received several on-site contributions and we will acknowledge these in the longer report. It will take a couple of week to process this many tags – please be patient a bit longer.
2. Monarchs are heading north and the colony at El Rosario is breaking up rapidly. As reported via Dplex-L, monarchs were seen in Austin, TX on the 6th. This is right on time – end of first week of March – for the earliest monarchs to be reported inland from the coast in Texas and is consistent with the earliest departures from the colonies sometime in the last week of February.
3. The condition of the monarchs at the overwintering colonies is exceptionally good. The number of tattered and worn monarchs relative to those in excellent to near perfect condition is small.
4. Overwintering mortality appears to have been minimal.
5. Federal police have a presence in Angangueo and we heard no large trucks rolling through town in the middle of the night.
6. We met and interacted with a number of tours and individuals who were in the monarch area. More on that later.
7. I spent 4 days working with a film crew from Disney at El Rosario. Disney has commissioned a series of nature films and this film about pollination and pollinators is scheduled for theaters in 2010-2011. The working title for the film is Naked Beauty – but the bets are the title will be changed in time to something like “Nature’s Beauty: A love story that feeds the world”. The film crew was the largest I’ve worked with and there were three cameras going most of the time. The footage will be spectacular and like no other to date.

Monarchs are going to get a lot of press as a result of the Disney production. While acting as the science advisor for this portion of the Disney film, I spoke with reporters from England, France, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States. All are expected to file stories on the film and on monarchs in highly visible publications.

While we were in Mexico, at least two other film crews from National Geographic and Discovery Channel were making short documentaries on monarchs. I don’t know whether the latter two productions had scientific advisors or had any scientific content.

Oh, and don’t expect to see any people in the Disney film. It’s all about the pollinators. Once the production goes to DVD, there will be lots of background on the different pollinators and it is possible then that you may see a scientist or two and hear their voices as various shots, mostly those not used in the final cut, are shown.

More to come!

Abies religiosa and Danaus plexippus

Daniel Mosquin, Education and Technology Manager at the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, recently posted some photos and video taken at the Sierra Chincua Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Mexico. If you’d like to learn a bit more about Oyamel fir trees (Abies religiosa) – a major element of the monarch’s overwintering habitat – head on over to:

Botany Photo of the Day – Abies religiosa and Danaus plexippus

Try as he might to take better photographs of the fir trees (this is a “Botany Photo of the Day” feature after all), tens of thousands of monarch butterflies kept getting in the way!

World on the Move: Great Animal Migrations

Last year at this time I was working with a BBC Radio crew in Mexico to record observations of the overwintering monarch population – as a part of their “World on the Move” series of programs in which they followed many migratory species around the world.

Overall, the BBC interviewed me four times as they followed the monarchs throughout the year. In addition, Karen Oberhauser provided BBC listeners with a perspective of the arrival of monarchs in the northern breeding area and Homero Aridjis gave an outlook from a Mexican point of view.

If you are so inclined, you can still listen to these radio reports – which the BBC assured me were heard by up to 1.2 billion people around the world, but by few of you I’m sure. In addition to the interviews, there are lots of photos, video, and other commentary.

Here are the links – enjoy!

Running with Monarchs – Part I

Running with Monarchs – Part II

Running with Monarchs – Part III

Running with Monarchs – Part IV

Monarch Caterpillars

Running with Monarchs – Part V

Monarchs Return to Mexico

Monarchs and the Day of the Dead

World on the Move Species: Monarch Butterfly

Garden Show A Success

Whew – that was a long work weekend! Monarch Watch put in over 100 hours at the recent Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show in Kansas City.

Our 10′ x 30′ booth contained a cage full of monarchs, milkweeds loaded with caterpillars and pupae, a plant a seedling activity, video & slideshow of the overwintering sites in Mexico, lots of Monarch Waystation info, and a mini “Monarch Watch Shop” where a few promotional and educational items were sold in support of our program.

Attendees got a first look at the new t-shirts that will be available via the Monarch Watch Shop soon:

Chip took the stage to give a couple of talks about creating habitats for butterflies and other pollinators:

I don’t know if every single one of the expected 30,000 visitors stopped by to see us but we definitely talked to a LOT of people about Monarch Watch and about creating habitats for monarchs and other wildlife. The donations collected and the few sales we made helped defray our costs of participating in the three-day event – more importantly though, we hope that we encouraged a large number of people to get involved in habitat conservation through our Monarch Waystation program (and that they get them certified!). Given the show’s proximity to Monarch Watch HQ in Lawrence, we also expect to see lots of first-time visitors to our Spring Open House and Plant Fundraiser coming up in May.

All in all I’d say this event was a success – we need to get the word out about Monarch Watch and habitat conservation; starting close to home makes sense

Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show This Weekend

Spring’s just around the corner! The Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show is Kansas City’s premier consumer Show dedicated to the green industry. This year’s theme is Butterfly Gardening and Monarch Watch has been invited to participate (and given complimentary booth space). We’ll have a large exhibit set up with lots of monarchs, videos, and information about our various programs, concentrating on Monarch Waystations. We’ll also be accepting donations, have t-shirts and other goodies for sale to support our program, and be giving away monarch habitat seeds, including milkweed – we’ll even have a pot-making activity where you can make your own little newspaper pots and plant seeds to take home.

Right next to us you’ll find the show’s “Butterfly Encounter” – an exhibit with live butterflies from around the world, one of the largest temporary displays ever built in the Midwest.

If you’re in the area we’d love for you to stop by the American Royal Center and see us sometime Friday through Sunday (Feb 6-8):

Friday 10a to 9p
Saturday 10a to 9p
Sunday 10a to 6p

For directions, ticket information, and other details please visit the Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show website. See you there!

The Future of Monarch Watch

The year 2009 marks the eighteenth year of Monarch Watch. We started the program in the fall of 1992 and, given the economic conditions, I’m wondering if we will still be around next year at this time. Keeping Monarch Watch going from year to year has always been a concern yet somehow we have managed. In fact, we are one of the longest surviving educational outreach programs in existence. Most such programs have initial funding from grants, corporate benefactors, and contributions but only keep going for a year or two after the initial funding runs out. I don’t know the half-life of outreach programs that are similar to Monarch Watch, but I’d guess that it’s roughly 5-6 years. If this is the case, we have done relatively well. But, can we keep it going?

At a recent meeting, the discussion turned to the funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the statement was made that most NGOs are anticipating declines in revenues of 20-40% in the next year. I’ve heard similar concerns on NPR and on local radio stations as well. Monarch Watch might be able to survive a 20% drop in revenue but not 40% or even 30%. So, what is the prospect for the future? We’ve been looking at the books and it doesn’t look good. Last year our expenses exceeded our income by $18,000 – clearly, we need to increase our income and it’s really an open question as to whether we can do so.

Our 2008 income and expense breakdown is as follows:

The tagging program doesn’t pay for itself and we can’t cover all the costs associated with buying tags in Mexico, so I have been paying for most of the tags from personal funds.

Why We Need to Survive

For the last 14 years I have been advocating the creation of a cohesive plan to conserve the monarch migration, a plan that involves all three countries that host the eastern monarch population. I won’t go into the history of this advocacy, and I’m not sure it ever had any impact, but the reality is that such a plan has been developed and we now have the “North American Monarch Conservation Plan”. This is an exciting development and we want to be in a position to support this plan in the coming years. The plan was developed through an extensive set of meetings and communications involving representatives of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The first positive steps toward international cooperation to conserve monarchs occurred at meetings of the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management. These meetings, aided by the hard work of Donita Cotter and others, led to The Trilateral Monarch Butterfly Sister Protected Area (SPA) Network, a partnership of wildlife refuges and national parks in the United States and Canada, and natural protected areas in Mexico. Subsequent meetings involved monarch scientific and conservation experts and other stakeholders who met in Mission, Texas in 2006 (supported by the U.S. Forest Service) and in June 2007 in Morelia, Mexico (supported by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America (CEC)). Karen Oberhauser (Monarchs in the Classroom/Monarch Lab) was the lead organizer and writer of the plan and her hard work, as well as that of Donita Cotter (USFWS) and a multitude of contributors, resulted in a plan that WILL serve as the basis for an upcoming focus on the protection, enhancement, and restoration of monarch habitats in the United States.

Announcements about developments related to this plan and monarch conservation will be forthcoming in a few months. Suffice it to say that a goal is to unite all parties interested in monarch conservation. To contribute to this encouraging development in coming years, we need to keep Monarch Watch going and to do so we will need help.

How You Can Help Monarch Watch and Monarchs

If you would like to help us continue our work on monarch conservation, here are some suggestions:

• Make a single or recurring donation online or by mail – contributions are 100% tax-deductible and many employers will match your gift.

• Register your monarch habitat with us as a Monarch Waystation, if you haven’t already done so.

• Encourage others to create habitats and register them as Monarch Waystations.

• Visit the Monarch Watch Shop to purchase educational and promotional products.

• Attend our Spring Open House and Plant Fundraiser on 9 May 2009.

• Organize fundraisers on behalf of Monarch Watch.

• Help us find a corporate sponsor.

Monarch Watch Mission and Vision Statements

We have always described Monarch Watch as an outreach program that deals with education, research, and conservation of monarchs but we are much more. We truly have a mission and vision but we have never made these views clear to the public and our participants.

Mission Statement: Monarch Watch strives to provide the public with information about the biology of monarch butterflies, their spectacular migration, and how to use monarchs to further science education in primary and secondary schools. We engage in research on monarch migration biology and monarch population dynamics to better understand how to conserve the monarch migration. We also promote protection of monarch habitats throughout North America.

Vision Statement: In recognition of the rapid loss of habitats and resources needed by monarch butterflies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, our vision is the preservation of the monarch migration will require stewardship by the governments and private citizens of all three countries. We all must work together to create, conserve, and protect monarch habitats. Sustaining monarch habitats will have the effect of protecting vital pollinators and other wildlife.

What We Do at Monarch Watch
Annual and Ongoing Activities

Listed below is a summary of the major things we do at Monarch Watch – Jim, Ann, and I wear many hats around here and it would be impossible to list EVERYTHING we do.

• Manage the monarch butterfly tagging program
• Create educational materials based on monarchs
• Manage the Monarch Watch website
• Manage the Dplex-L email discussion list
• Manage the Monarch Watch Forums
• Provide periodic updates on monarchs via our Blog
• Distribute caterpillars and educational materials to schools
• Give general and professional talks on monarch biology (~12/yr)
• Videochat with classrooms (Q&A sessions with students) via iChat or Skype
• Respond to thousands of emails and dozens of press inquires
• Advise teachers and students on classroom and independent projects
• Summarize and publish tagging data
• Track monarch population trends and develop models to predict population size
• Host Spring and Fall Open House events for the public (400 to 1000 attendees)
• Conduct a public tagging event at Baker/Haskell Wetlands (150 to 550 participants)
• Promote Monarch Waystations to engage the public in monarch conservation
• Give tours to school groups, garden clubs, and many individuals that visit us
• Serve as a resource for numerous documentaries on monarchs

Monarch Watch Projects and Activities for 2009

Seek funds to analyze the tagging data

The tagging database is enormous, with more than one million records of tagged monarchs and close to 13,000 recoveries. We need to analyze these data and that will require funds to validate and standardize the entries. This is no small task and will require hundreds of hours. Although most of the questions we want to ask of the data, such as recovery rates for each section of the country, are clear, we anticipate that new questions will arise as answers to the first questions become apparent. The biggest challenge will be to test two major hypotheses regarding the migration, namely that it is driven by weather or is coincident with celestial changes. Gathering the weather records for the United States for each migration over the last 17 years will also take lots of hours. We anticipate that this project will cost 40-50,000 dollars.

Blog – more frequent entries

We got off to a great start with the Blog in early 2008 but got away from this task as the season progressed. We are going to post entries more frequently in 2009. You can expect to read much more about monarch conservation this year – things will be happening.

Reorganize the website

We have so much on our website that I’ve forgotten much of it. But, more importantly, I can’t find ancient texts when I do remember them. So, we have to find a student or intern who can take the time to go through old texts and organize them so that the information is more accessible to all.

Continue research on monarch population dynamics

We are making progress on an analysis of the relationship of climate to the numbers of monarchs reported at the overwintering sites and other locations. Stay tuned – the results will surprise you.

Promote phenology project more effectively

Last year we encouraged you to start tracking the phenology of the milkweeds in your gardens or familiar monarch habitats. For various reasons this project got off to a slow start. We are going to try again this year so watch the Blog for more information.

Promote Monarch Waystations with the goal of registering more than 1,000 new Waystations in 2009

The Monarch Waystation message requires constant promotion. We need to engage more gardeners, schools, nature centers, botanical gardens, property owners, municipalities, businesses, homeowners associations, zoos, and others to create Monarch Waystations. Given that we are losing 6,000 acres per day due to development, monarchs need all the help they can get. Please help us get this message to others.

Develop and implement a closed breeding system to control disease in monarch cultures

This project has been a long term goal; we are not there yet but we are getting closer.

Continue the tagging program for the 18th year

Tags may now be ordered via the Monarch Watch Shop for distribution in July/August – in plenty of time for the migration in your area.

Assist with and promote the North American Monarch Conservation Plan

We will have a lot more to say about this plan soon.

On TV: The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies

From time to time the monarch migration and associated conservation issues are covered in the national media, via articles in newspapers, magazines, and short clips on TV news programs. Overall, the coverage of the monarch story has been spotty bits and pieces, and Americans have not been exposed to an in-depth treatment of the amazing monarch migration, nor the people and cultures that encounter monarchs on their yearly north and south passage across the continent. This is about to change. NOVA’s “The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies“ will be aired on PBS at 8PM (check local listings) Tuesday, 27 January 2009.

This program is an edited version of “Four Wings and a Prayer” – a Canadian/French film production based loosely on the fine book of the same name by Sue Halpern (get your copy of Four Wings and a Prayer at the Monarch Watch Shop). In the book, published in 2001, Sue Halpern recounts following the fall monarch migration to Mexico. As part of the story she spoke with scientists, butterfly specialists, and others who have a passionate attachment to monarch butterflies. The wonders and mysteries of the monarch migration are told in Sue’s words and in the words of those she interviewed. It is a fascinating first person account – a combination of natural history, travel, and human interest. The movie version of Four Wings lacks the first person perspective and concentrates on telling the story of the migration. Scientists and others are interviewed along the way but the movie format doesn’t allow for an in-depth study of how people interact with monarchs. And, it shouldn’t. There is a migration story to be told, and it is told well in this production. The original Four Wings (80 mins) was edited to create a production that would fit within the NOVA format. It will be interesting to see what has been retained in the NOVA version and what was removed. There were many striking images and sequences in the original production and the shots taken of the overwintering clusters are the best I’ve seen. Several sequences, which I’m sure will be retained in the NOVA production, are vertical tracking shots that pan from the bottom to the top of trees covered with monarchs. If you ever doubted that there are as many as 25 million butterflies per acre at the overwintering sites, you won’t after you see these images. The original production was narrated by Kristin Scott-Thomas (The English Patient), however the voice in the new version is that of Stockard Channing (The West Wing). The original narration contained a few errors; the new narration was fact checked extensively and should be more accurate.

In one way or another I’ve been involved with most of the monarch video productions made over the last 14 years, but I have a personal connection to this film like no other. The Four Wings producer, Nick de Pencier, and the film crew timed their visit to Lawrence to coincide with the public tagging scheduled at the Baker-Haskell Wetlands on Saturday, 11 September 2004. The film crew arrived on Thursday afternoon and, after chatting for an hour or more in the lab, we filmed a few shots in our garden and then headed for the wetlands. The objective was to show the crew sites where monarchs often form clusters at the end of the day. Monarchs were few and there were no clusters but nice round sticks, unnoticed by me, were scattered on the ground and I slipped on one and broke my ankle. Just like that! It was off to the emergency room where I acquired a temporary cast. An operation was obviously required but couldn’t be scheduled until Monday. This situation immediately raised many questions about whether we would be able to continue the filming, especially shooting the interview. There was some pain, so drugs were required and it wasn’t clear whether I would be lucid. Nevertheless, in the spirit of “the show must go on” – and another show business adage “break a leg” which I had managed to do quite literally – the film crew took me back to the location of the accident, propped me up in a chair, and filmed the interview. I was talkative but I have no idea whether I made any sense or said too much or too little. Anyway, if any of this interview was retained in Incredible Journey, please keep in mind that I wasn’t in my right mind at the time. I think of Four Wings often – every time the weather changes, and often when descending stairs, my right ankle reminds me of that production.

There is one more note. Most of the footage for this production was obtained in the fall of 2004 and the winter of 2004-2005. As you may recall, the fall migration was the smallest we’ve recorded at Monarch Watch. The overwintering population measured by the authorities in Mexico was the lowest (2.19 hectares) since official measurement began in 1992 and lower than any of the unofficial measurements made by Lincoln Brower and his teams going back into the late 70s. In spite of the relative dearth of monarchs, the film crews were able to obtain some spectacular footage.

Though monarchs have bounced back a bit from the low in 2004, the numbers of monarchs in this decade at the overwintering sites are averaging about 60% of the numbers recorded in the 1990s. We are concerned about these lower numbers and loss of habitat certainly could be a factor. Each year in the United States we lose 2.2 million acres of habitat for wildlife to development or 8.8 million acres since the filming of Four Wings. In 2006 we initiated the Monarch Waystation Program with the objective of creating monarch habitat by planting milkweeds and nectar sources, garden-by-garden, plot-by-plot, in an attempt to offset some of this habitat loss. Our view is that we need a better effort in the United States to protect monarchs, pollinators, and all other wildlife on all private and public lands. It’s not difficult or costly to protect the wildlife we all enjoy or upon which we depend, as is the case with pollinators. If you are not familiar with the Monarch Waystation Program or the need to protect monarch habitats and how to do it, please visit – www.MonarchWatch.org/waystations/.

For more information on “The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies” please visit the program’s page on NOVA’s website, where you can view a preview and read more about the production. Again, the time of the program is 8PM (check local listings) on Tuesday, 27 January 2009. If you are a fan of American Idol or other shows in this time slot, be sure to set your VCR or DVR to record this program.

Don’t worry if you miss it on TV – we will be offering the “Incredible Journey of the Butterflies” DVD via the Monarch Watch Shop, where each purchase helps support our program. The DVD is due to be released in April.