Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan 2018-2068
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DRAFT 2018Westmonarchpubliccommdft.20181105 DRAFT WESTERN MONARCH BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION PLAN 2018-2068 Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies October 2018 DRAFT 2018Westmonarchpubliccommdft.20181105 DRAFT Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan 2018–2068 Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Prepared by Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Western Monarch Working Group Taylor Cotten – Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Jim DeVos – Arizona Game and Fish Department Chris Keleher – Utah Department of Natural Resources Stafford Lehr – California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Executive Sponsor Samantha Marcum – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Karen Miner – California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Working Group Chair Jennifer Newmark – Nevada Department of Wildlife Davia Palmeri – Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Rex Sallabanks – Idaho Department of Fish and Game Maria Ulloa Bustos – Bureau of Land Management Bill Van Pelt – Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Mindy Wheeler – Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Contributing Authors Cheri Boucher – Arizona Game and Fish Department Vikki Finn – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Region Mike Houts – Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Ann Potter – Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Daydre Roser – California Department of Fish and Wildlife Helen Swagerty – California Department of Fish and Wildlife Leona Svancara – Idaho Department of Fish and Game Paul Thompson – Utah Department of Natural Resources Editor: Beth Waterbury – Idaho Department of Fish and Game, retired Recommended citation: Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. 2018. Western monarch butterfly conservation plan, 2018– 2068. Version 1.0. Cover photo credits: Left: Adult monarchs nectaring on showy milkweed. Photo: Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Center: Overwintering cluster of monarchs in eucalyptus. Photo: Candace Fallon/The Xerces Society Right: Fifth instar monarch caterpillar feeding on showy milkweed. Photo: Idaho Department of Fish and Game Page ii DRAFT 2018Westmonarchpubliccommdft.20181105 DRAFT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Western Monarch Working Group is grateful to the panel of western monarch researchers who generously provided their time and energy to this effort: Elizabeth Crone, Thomas Dilts, Matthew Forister, Sarina Jepsen, Gail Morris, Emma Pelton, and Cheryl Schultz. In addition, selected individuals representing various agencies and public sectors provided comments on a preliminary rough draft of the plan. Their thoughtful review and input was invaluable in the formulation of this draft plan. We thank the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for providing a grant to support the development of the Western Monarch Conservation Plan. Page iii DRAFT 2018Westmonarchpubliccommdft.20181105 DRAFT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The monarch butterfly is one of the most familiar and charismatic insects of North America, renowned for its distinctive migratory phenomena and reliance on milkweed, the monarch’s larval host plant. Once widespread and common throughout its range, populations have undergone recent and rapid declines. The western population of monarchs that breeds west of the Rocky Mountains and largely overwinters in coastal California has declined 74% since the late 1990s. The much larger eastern population that breeds east of the Rockies and overwinters in Mexico has declined at a similar rate. In 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was petitioned to list the monarch as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The USFWS found that the petition contained sufficient information to demonstrate that listing may be warranted and initiated a formal status review to inform their listing decision, anticipated in June 2019. Concurrent with the status review, USFWS and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies have actively promoted collaborative efforts across state, organizational, and land ownership boundaries to address threats and opportunities facing monarchs and other pollinators. In 2017, the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) established the Western Monarch Working Group (WMWG) to proactively lead a multistate cooperative agenda for conservation of the western monarch population. If implemented in a timely manner, WMWG efforts could preclude the need to list the monarch under the ESA. This document, The Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan (hereafter “Plan”), is intended to articulate and attain WAFWA’s vision to identify and promote a shared set of unified, ecosystem-based conservation strategies across all partner agencies to achieve the vision of a viable western monarch population. The Plan currently encompasses the states of Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, which comprise the core of the western monarch range. In contrast to the eastern range, the western range is unique in containing overwintering, breeding, and migratory habitats comprising the entirety of the monarch’s migratory life cycle. With the exception of the California wintering sites, critical knowledge gaps still exist on the distribution and quality of monarch breeding and migratory habitats and primary threat factors influencing monarch declines in the western landscape. The Plan’s various sections and appendices describe these features in more detail. Section 1: Introduction and Plan Overview describes the need, purpose, planning approach, and state authorities for developing the Plan. Section 2: Western Monarch Butterfly Ecology is a primer on monarch life history, habitat requirements, and population status of western monarchs. Section 3: Summary of Potential Threat Factors provides an overview of a unique suite of potential threats impacting the western monarch population and its habitat. Page iv DRAFT 2018Westmonarchpubliccommdft.20181105 DRAFT Section 4: Current Conservation Efforts summarizes recent and ongoing activities of federal and state agencies, NGOs, academia, industry sectors, and citizen scientists on behalf of monarch and pollinator conservation. Section 5: Monarch Population and Habitat Goals establishes near term (10-year) measurable objectives for population size and habitat targets with the goal of reversing western monarch declines and providing for population growth. Section 6: Overwintering Habitat Conservation Strategies outlines approaches to protect and restore overwintering groves, including development of site-specific grove management plans. Section 7: Breeding Habitat Conservation Strategies addresses strategies for conserving monarch habitats (breeding, migratory) in natural lands, urban, rights-of-way, and agricultural habitat sectors. Section 8: Education and Outreach Strategies harnesses the widespread appeal of the monarch to engage eight different audiences in education, conservation, and scientific research programs. Section 9: Research and Monitoring Needs identifies research priorities for overwintering sites, breeding/migratory habitats, and monarch vital rates; and monitoring priorities to track population trends, threat reduction efforts, and progress towards achieving Plan goals and objectives. Section 10: Capacity, Funding, and Implementation provides summary-level clarity to the question of how WMWG state members will mechanize Plan implementation as a matter of law, funding, and governance structure. Section 11: Adaptive Management describes a framework for monitoring conservation activities in the Plan to identify whether they are producing the desired results or whether adjustments in approaches under the adaptive management process are warranted. This Plan is a call to action. It provides a collaborative framework for action and accountability among state, federal, NGO, academic, private, and local partners to advance near-term and long-term objectives to address and ameliorate threats and ensure improvement and long-term persistence of the western monarch population into the foreseeable future (50 years). Page v DRAFT 2018Westmonarchpubliccommdft.20181105 DRAFT CONTENTS Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... iv Acronyms and Abbreviations Used in this Document .................................................................... ix SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OVERVIEW ....................................................................... 1 1.1. Need .................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2. Purpose Statement ............................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Planning Approach .............................................................................................................. 3 1.4. State Authorities ................................................................................................................. 3 SECTION 2: WESTERN MONARCH BUTTERFLY ECOLOGY ............................................................... 5 2.1. Description .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. Taxonomy ...........................................................................................................................