Updated Efforts To Protect The Western Monarch Butterfly

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, along with partners across the West, has completed a major update to a long-term plan to save the western monarch butterfly.

The revised Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan outlines the next five years of action in a broader 50-year effort to restore the struggling species.  

The 2025 update refines habitat and population targets, incorporates emerging science, and identifies voluntary conservation actions aimed at stabilizing and recovering the western monarch population. The updated plan also includes a working definition of western monarch breeding habitat and a refined definition of monarch overwintering habitat.

“The latest update to the Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan details actions that protect monarchs in eastern Washington, including restoring and protecting habitat like showy milkweed while reducing habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and invasive species,” said Julie Combs, WDFW’s monarch species lead.

State officials say the stakes are high.  Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, or even over a million, western monarchs numbers have dropped.

The Western Monarch Count, an annual community science event led by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, has recently documented some of the lowest western monarch butterfly overwintering populations, as low as 1,900 individuals, since the program began in 1997.

Those low overwintering numbers in other states like California directly translate into historically low migratory and breeding butterflies in Washington, as little as 25-100 butterflies annually in the last few years.

“In light of these startlingly low numbers, we wanted to ensure that with this plan, we are providing Washington land managers, landowners, conservation practitioners, and any others the right tools to help conserve monarch butterfly populations as best as they can,” said Combs.

Wildlife experts say restoring native habitat, including milkweed, and reducing pesticide use and invasive species will be key to recovery.  Officials emphasize conservation will take a collective effort—from individuals to entire communities.

Click Here to read the entire updated plan.

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