Habitat Monitoring Volunteers

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The Field Museum has been asked to pilot a national citizen science monarch butterfly monitoring protocol. This is a hugely important project because the United States Fish and Wildlife Service wants to set these sites up as long-term (~20 year) monarch monitoring locations. It's important to us that cities are part of that dataset. The monitoring sites selected for us are near the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago and the south suburbs of Blue Island, Riverdale, and Dolton. There are 3 roles to the monitoring that can all be done by the same person or by different people:

1. Adult butterfly walks - no technical experience required but monitors need the patience to do monthly walks where you may or may not see butterflies
2. Plant survey- this requires a high degree of plant knowledge and the willingness to sample monthly
3. Larval monitors - no technical experience required but this role requires the most frequent site visits

This monitoring will run from May through early September. The Field Museum will run a training in May, and we can provide the monitoring materials.