“During the spring and fall migration, monarchs travel through Texas, which makes it an extremely important region to focus our efforts to increase awareness and monarch conservation activities. The University of Minnesota has assessed the impact that Texas monarch monitoring workshops have on participants and their engagement in monarch monitoring programs and conservation activities.

The assessment provided feedback for trainers on aspects of the trainings that were well-received and also provided suggestions for how to improve future trainings. Overall, the Texas monarch monitoring trainings were a huge success. Hands-on learning in monarch trainings can be a very powerful tool. Seeing and identifying monarchs and visiting local habitats was by far the most influential part of monarch monitoring trainings in Texas.

Participants had high marks for the workshop trainers, who have hands-on experience with monarch monitoring programs and are enthusiastic about the work that they are doing. Strong trainers have helped to create a large network of volunteers throughout Texas who are helping to spread passion for monarchs in this very important region. The training assessment will continue as these workshops persist, and will continue to inform future workshops. Cibolo Nature Center, the main venue for these trainings, is increasing their effort each year to train monarch enthusiasts, and trainers are reaching out to other audiences, such as students, teachers, and Master Naturalist groups. We are excited about the work that Texas is doing to support monarch monitoring education” (MJV 2013).

• Monarch Joint Venture (MJV). 2013. Monarch Monitoring Training Assessment. http://monarchjointventure.org/our-work/monarch-monitoring-training-assessment.

Keywords: citizen science, training