GOAL 1: Track North American butterfly monitoring and strive to include all programs.

The below chart illustrates all the butterfly monitoring programs that we are aware of, including those that are not yet part of our network. We are keeping track of all insect monitoring programs as we become aware of them on our Monitor Tracker. For programs that have joined our network, a detailed list of each program is found on our partners page.

Our network is not moving towards consolidation of programs or towards building a "federated" system (meaning one single portal where you can access all program data). Instead, our first goal is to work together with the intention to share resources and learn from each other. Our second goal is to standardize as much as possible without changing the fundamentals of any particular program. In fact, all that is required to be part of the network is to agree to adopt our flexible metadata standards, develop a data sharing policy (the specifics of which are up to each program), and provide us with enough information so that we can inform the public of the specifics of each program. Beyond that, each program can decide how engaged they want to be and what efforts they want to be a part of.

This inventory of monitoring programs includes all the programs that we were aware of by the start of our May 2012 workshop. We will continue to update this figure as we find out about new programs or if there are any changes. We have not included most “atlas” programs in the below figures (where volunteers try to confirm the presence or absence of species within a gridded map). These programs all represent general butterfly surveys (meaning all species are counted) and do not include programs focused solely on the monarch (Danaus plexippus). Monarch programs are best accessed through the MonarchNet website.

There are four types of programs included in this figure: Academic programs (blue bars) represent long-running, large-scale academic (not volunteer) based programs that monitor all species. Transect programs (green bars) are those based on the European model and have set transects that are walked regularly throughout each season by the same volunteers using adapted Pollard methods. Count programs (yellow bars) have fewer protocols and involve groups of volunteers going to set location circles and counting as many butterflies as they can (by species) within a single day. Opportunistic programs are even less structured (orange bars). These can include organized field trips that count all species seen to single observations reported to a website. Program titles with a box include all of North America. Programs with an asterisk are not yet part of our network.*

This project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF award 1147049) to the University of Maryland and the Socio-environmental Synthesis Center.