Optimal Management of Roadsides for Monarch Butterfly Recovery

Recovering the eastern North American monarch butterfly requires bridging the gap between continental migration patterns and localized land management. This presentation synthesizes local experimental data with a continental-scale analysis to identify optimal mowing windows that transform routine roadside maintenance into productive breeding habitat. Tyler Flockhart, Ph.D., demonstrates how optimizing these existing safety and aesthetic regimes offers a framework for science-based actions that yield quick, scalable conservation gains across three countries.