What are US states doing for monarch butterfly conservation? Comparing state wildlife action plans 2015–2025

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are iconic migratory insects that are in decline. These migratory insects utilize habitat spanning the United States for summer breeding. Because of this, multi-state cooperation is vital for monarch butterfly conservation. U.S. states are responsible for keeping wildlife in trust for their citizens. State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) are documents that outline each state’s wildlife agency’s 10-year conservation goals for at-risk species. In this study, we examine all 50 U.S. 2015-2025 SWAPs to assess the conservation efforts states set forth to conserve this popular species. We used text analytics software to organize our reading and search for all mentions of “monarch butterflies” and “milkweed”. We found that monarch butterfly representation in SWAPs is highly variable for U.S. states in the migration corridor, often lacking alignment with established conservation needs. A total of 20 states in the contiguous U.S. (including Oklahoma and Nebraska) have not listed the monarch butterfly as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need, which is troubling considering their location within critical migration routes. SWAPs from several states such as Idaho, Louisiana, Texas, and Rhode Island exemplify strong monarch conservation actions, which include both monarch butterfly specific actions and milkweed conservation actions such as seed saving programs. Our results suggest that states can improve monarch conservation actions by ensuring SWAPs include monarch specific actions, which include management for their obligate host plants (genus: Asclepias) for the upcoming 2025-2035 document period.