“The Field Museum is partnering with the USFWS Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and the Ecological Places in Cities (EPIC) Network to create an urban conservation plan for the monarch butterfly. The project [addresses] the following questions: what contribution can urban areas make to monarch conservation; where should we focus this work to achieve the best ecological and social results; and how should we best engage various urban sectors and residents in this project?

The project has four steps: 1) develop an urban monarch conservation framework to help guide efforts across the flyway; 2) develop urban monarch landscape conservation designs (LCDs) for Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City and Austin metropolitan areas; 3) implement and evaluate on-the-ground projects referencing the prototype LCDs; and 4) hold a workshop with a mid-continent migratory pathway focus to integrate individual LCDs into a cross-regional approach.

In the end, The Field Museum and partners aim to describe the desired types, amounts, and distribution of monarch/pollinator habitat opportunities in urban settings across the eastern flyway” (MJV 2016).

• Monarch Joint Venture (MJV). 2016. Expanding Urban Conservation with New MJV Partner: The Field Museum. http://monarchjointventure.org/news-events/news/expanding-urban-conservation-with-new-mjv-partner.

Keywords: urban