Human disturbance is one of the biggest impacts on any species, given that we share the environment with them.  It comes in many forms: pollution, deforestation, and construction to name a few. Military installations increase the rate of disturbance through training, preparation, and daily activities. Although, our biggest competitor has been the landscaping crew on base.  Since they don’t have a background in the importance of monarchs and milkweed like us field technicians, they are not informed of the conservation efforts involved with our surveys.  

Nearing the end of September, our surveys became more and more interesting as the monarchs headed our way.  We were seeing many eggs and larvae across the milkweed in our census plots.  In one of our plots, we counted 24 eggs and 3 instars across the milkweed patch! We were so excited to keep track of their progression as the eggs hatched every few days.  

A few days after the survey, I drove past the plot on my normal route out of base, and there were landscapers out that were finishing up their work nearby.  Once I got closer, I realized they mowed right through our plot! All of the milkweed we had documented before was gone, as well as all of the monarch activity that it contained.  I immediately felt devasted knowing the hard work the monarchs do to reproduce and continue the next generation, as well as for the lack of milkweed already in our area.  

I reached out to my field partner and my managers, to give them an update.  By no surprise they were just as upset as I was, and we knew action needed to be taken.  We put together a letter to provide to the Natural Resource Office on base with hopes to get in touch with the landscaping team.  We learned the importance of communicating our findings in a timely manner to ensure all groups are on board with the conservation efforts.  If we go out and collect all of this data for it to just be mowed over the next day, our efforts aren’t as productive to aid in the overall migration.  

While we lost those monarchs, we gained an even greater understanding of the importance of protecting every plant and monarch that we can while sharing our findings with partners.  The experience only made us more motivated to go out and collect data and contribute to the conservation efforts of the monarch migration! With our communication to the landscapers, hopefully we are able to work together to preserve this beautiful act of nature! 

Take a look at the before and after of the plot:

After Mowing…