“The lack of understanding of milkweed density among a wide array of land uses, both public and private, means that monarch recovery strategies are imprecise. In partnership with Monarch Joint Venture, USGS, and the Department of the Interior’s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps, a pilot effort was launched in summer 2015 to collect key information on milkweed densities on and near public lands to help inform national strategies for milkweed restoration” (MJV 2015).

In the summer and fall of 2015, Corps members scoured the monarch central flyway for milkweed plants. They “gathered information about milkweed density and diversity from hundreds of randomly selected roadside points throughout the central flyway” (MJV 2015). Research into the suitability of roadsides for monarch habitat and the availability of milkweed on roadsides throughout the flyways is taking place with the results of this pilot effort.

• Monarch Joint Venture (MJV). 2015. Milkweed Sampling for Monarchs: Pilot Project. http://monarchjointventure.org/news-events/news/milkweed-sampling-for-monarchs-pilot-project.

Keywords: milkweed, roadside, survey