The Energy Resources Center (ERC) at the University of Illinois, Chicago has been an active participant in high-level monarch conservation working groups like the Monarch Conservation Science Partnership and the Keystone Monarch Collaborative (ERC 2016). ERC is delving further into monarch conservation with the development of the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group, which is currently focused on creating “a geospatial database of habitat projects on public and private lands, primarily informed by utility and transportation organizations in the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group, other surveys and data collection activities performed in parallel, and other frameworks for pollinator conservation.

The database will provide a direct measure of the collective impact of habitat restoration and enhancement across organizations and also increase awareness of these efforts, inform conservation planning and policy, and encourage cooperation and partnership between organizations. The database will be designed to contain information on the geographic locations of habitat parcels as well as information about the project sponsor(s), baseline condition, project design, implementation status, management plan, and other relevant details. The database would ideally be compatible with the USGS’ Monarch Conservation and Planning Tools, FieldWatch developed at Purdue University (<https://driftwatch.org/>), and any other tools/databases deemed appropriate” (Holt 2016).

• Energy Resources Center (ERC). 2016. Rights-of-way as Habitat. erc.uic.edu/biofuels-bioenergy/pollinator-habitat/rights-of-way-as-habitat/.
• Holly Holt. 2016 Monarch Joint Venture, Science Coordinator. Personal communication.

Keywords: database, Rights of way