By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

Two federal agencies have promised new efforts to conserve monarch butterflies and other pollinators following the first-ever Monarch Butterfly Summit in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) will award $1 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund to help reverse recent population declines and ensure the survival of monarch butterflies and other at-risk insect pollinators.

The public-private partnership, according to DOI, will focus on the western monarch butterfly by improving the availability of high-quality habitat and increasing the capacity needed to expand conservation efforts into the future.

The partnership will also support implementation of technical assistance to engage private landowners with pollinator conservation practices on working lands.

Following the summit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced it will establish a Pollinator Conservation Center.

The goal of the center, according to FWS, is to address the decline in pollinator populations.

Staff will work across FWS programs and with other agencies and organizations as a hub for “improving the state of science and the direct conservation actions that can reverse population trends.”

There are two distinct populations of monarch butterflies in North America.

The eastern population migrates through Texas to overwinter in Mexico from October to late March.

The western population lives west of the Rocky Mountains and overwinters along the Californian coast.

Milkweed and other flowering plants are important to both populations.

Adult monarchs feed on the nectar of flowers and breed only in milkweeds.

According to FWS, changes in breeding, migratory and overwintering habitat due to drought, conversion of grasslands, urban development, and other factors have contributed to the decline of Monarch butterfly populations over the last few decades.

The butterfly’s population expands and contracts with changes in temperature, rainfall and other factors.

In 2020, FWS determined that listing the Monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act is warranted but precluded at the time by higher priority actions.

It’s a candidate for listing as threatened or endangered, and its status each year will be reviewed by FWS until a proposal is developed.