Conserving Monarch Butterflies in an Urban Setting Presentation

View on YouTube

Urban habitat conservation is critical to the success of monarch butterflies. Creating habitat in the urban setting will ensure that the butterflies have a place to stop on their migration journey. In this webinar, Catherine Werner from the St. Louis Mayor’s Office and Milkweeds for Monarchs program, Cortney Solum from Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge, and Kristin Shaw from the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative, will share a case study of the Milkweeds for Monarchs (M4M) program in the city of St. Louis, MO. The M4M program is an urban ecological effort of the city and its partners to connect people to nature while providing habitat for the monarch butterfly and its caterpillars. Not only is the M4M program creating habitat within the City of St. Louis, it is a part of a larger effort to conserve the monarch butterfly and other pollinators in urban areas in the Eastern United States. Participants will learn how they might be able to start a similar program in their urban community. Presenters: Cortney Solum is the Visitor Services Manager at Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge and part of the City of St. Louis’ Milkweeds for Monarchs team. Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge is located along the Mississippi Flyway at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Kristin Shaw is the Coordinator of the Ecological Places in Cities (EPIC), a practitioner’s network within the Eastern Tallgrass and Big Rivers and Upper Midwest Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperatives geographies.The EPIC network seeks to combine planning and action that provides people living in cities with resources to harmonize people, wildlife, and natural and working landscapes. Catherine Werner is the Sustainability Director at the St. Louis Mayor's Office and Lead for Milkweeds for Monarch Program.