Journey North

Journey North is a contributory, crowdsourced citizen science program of the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum. Journey North’s mission is to engage a wide audience across North America in tracking migration and seasonal change to foster scientific understanding, environmental awareness and the land ethic. Journey North Monarchs & Milkweed Project invites participants from Canada, US and Mexico to submit observations on phenological events including migration and life cycle stages of project species. During the spring season, participants submit data on first arrival of monarchs; first emergence of milkweed, first sightings of monarch eggs and larva. In the summer, participants record the presence of adult monarchs, milkweed and breeding activity. In the fall, participants track peak migration and roost locations. Finally, during the winter months, participants are encouraged to submit presence of monarchs found beyond official sanctuary locations. In addition to the Monarchs & Milkweed Project, Journey North observers also help track the migration of Hummingbirds, Common Loons & Ice-Out, American Robins, Barn Swallows, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Baltimore and Bullock’s Orioles. Journey North also runs two educational projects: Tulip Test Garden and Symbolic Migration.

The Symbolic Migration project is a partnership project between Journey North, a program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, and Monarchs Across Georgia, a committee of The Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia, a 501(c)(3) organization. Journey North manages the interactive Symbolic Migration Participant Maps and hosts all educational materials on the Journey North website. Monarchs Across Georgia administers the program and is responsible for all fundraising.

Monitoring Activity Tracker

Snapshot

Coordinator: Sheehan, Nancy
Program Started: 1997
Institution Type: Academic Institution
Data Availability: Journey North follows the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA copyright policy (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Datasets are available upon request. All results can be viewed on real-time interactive maps.
Species Focus: Monarchs
Program website
Contact URL: https://journeynorth.org/
Contact: Nancy Sheehan (nsheehan@wisc.edu)

Protocol

Protocol Type: Rearing, Opportunistic, First sighting, Sighting
Data Type(s): Presence only
Survey Focus: Adults, Juveniles, Milkweed, Roosts
Incidental Data Collected: Weather, Behavior, Host / nectar plants, Habitat notes
Visit Frequency: Opportunistic
Protocol Notes: Observers log in to the website and report when they see the first adult, milkweed, egg/larvae of the spring season. In fall, observers can report roosts and adult migrants. Anecdotal, non-migratory sightings can also be reported and this includes any winter breeding.

Program Results

Publications:

Flockhart DTT, Pichancourt JB, Norris DR, Martin TG. 2015. Unravelling the annual cycle in a migratory animal: breeding-season habitat loss drives population declines of monarch butterflies. Journal of Animal Ecology 84: 155-165.

Howard E, Davis AK. 2015. Tracking the fall migration of eastern monarchs with Journey North roost sightings: new findings about the pace of fall migration in Oberhauser KS, Nail KR, Altizer SM, eds. Monarchs in a Changing World: Biology and Conservation of an Iconic Insect. Ithaca, USA: Cornell University Press.

Batalden RV, Oberhauser KS. 2015. Potential changes in Eastern North American monarch migration in response to an introduced milkweed, Asclepias curassavica in Oberhauser KS, Nail KR, Altizer SM, eds. Monarchs in a Changing World: Biology and Conservation of an Iconic Insect. Ithaca, USA: Cornell University Press.

Nail KR, Batalden RV, Oberhauser KS. 2015. What's too hot and what's too cold? Lethal and sub-lethal effects of extreme temperatures on developing monarchs in Oberhauser KS, Nail KR, Altizer SM, eds. Monarchs in a Changing World: Biology and Conservation of an Iconic Insect. Ithaca, USA: Cornell University Press.

Flockhart DTT, Wassenaar LI, Martin TG, Hobson KA, Wunder MB, Norris DR. 2013. Tracking multi-generational colonization of the breeding grounds by monarch butterflies in eastern North America. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 280: 8.

Howard E, Davis AK. 2012. Mortality of migrating monarch butterflies from a wind storm on the shore of Lake Michigan, USA. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 45: 49-54.

Davis AK, Nibbelink NP, Howard E. 2012. Identifying large-and small-scale habitat characteristics of monarch butterfly migratory roost sites with citizen science observations. International Journal of Zoology 2012.

Howard E, Davis AK. 2011. A simple numerical index for assessing the spring migration of monarch butterflies using data from Journey North, a citizen-science program. Journal of the Lepidopterists Society 65: 267-270.

Howard E, Aschen H, Davis AK. 2010. Citizen Science Observations of Monarch Butterfly Overwintering in the Southern United States. Psyche: A Journal of Entomology Vol. 2010, Article ID 689301, 6 pages.

Howard E, Davis AK. 2009. The fall migration flyways of monarch butterflies in eastern North America revealed by citizen scientists. Journal of Insect Conservation 13: 279-286.

Davis AK, Howard E. 2005. Spring recolonization rate of monarch butterflies in eastern North America: new estimates from citizen-science data. Journal of the Lepidopterists Society 59: 1.

Feddema JJ, Shields J, Taylor OR, Bennett D. 2004. Simulating the Development and Migration of the Monarch Butterfly. Pages 229-240 in Oberhauser KS, Solensky MJ, eds. The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Howard E, Davis AK. 2004. Documenting the Spring Movements of Monarch Butterflies with Journey North, a Citizen Science Program. Pages 105-116 in Oberhauser KS, Solensky MJ, eds. The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

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