Monarch Butterfly Conservation

Orley R. “Chip” Taylor is founder and director of Monarch Watch, and is also a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.  Trained as an insect ecologist, he has published papers on species assemblages, hybridization, reproductive biology, population dynamics and plant demographics and pollination. In 1992 Taylor founded Monarch Watch, an outreach program focused on education, research and conservation related to monarch butterflies and based at the University of Kansas.  Since then, Monarch Watch has investigated and documented the sharp decline in the monarch population, enlisted the help of volunteers to tag monarchs during the fall migration, and created a network of monarch way stations and other feeding and breeding spots along migration routes. Through Monarch Watch's "Bring the Monarch Back" initiative, over 160,000 schools, parks and home gardens have received milkweed plugs to create vital breeding sites and fuel sources for butterflies on their annual migratory routes. In 2014, Taylor received the Growing Green Award from the Natural Resources Defense Council for his monarch recovery efforts.

In his lecture “Monarch Butterfly Recovery Plan,” Chip Taylor will describe his vision for comprehensive habitat development for the monarch butterfly, including large scale efforts to maintain the “milkweed-monarch corridor” on public and private lands through the upper Midwest. Taylor will highlight the distinct need for Iowans to take part in monarch butterfly habitat development programs, through creating way-stations in our schoolyards and backyards, developing pollinator-friendly practices on our farms, and volunteering with local and regional conservation groups who take part in monarch education

Taylor’s visit is sponsored in part by the Center for Prairie Studies.