This is What Restoration Looks Like: Rearing Monarch Butterflies along the Gila River
Sarah Sayles, Executive Director, Gila Watershed Partnership of Arizona
Habitat loss has long been considered the driver in the decline of monarch butterfly populations across the western United States. From 1990 to 2020, monarch numbers reached worryingly low levels, and in later years, the acceleration of climate change was added as motivator of the decline. As part of its mission to provide education and materials for improved native plant habitats around the region, the Gila Watershed Partnership (GWP) joined other organizations such as the Southwest Monarch Study to create Monarch Way Stations throughout southeastern Arizona. By 2022, GWP had succeeded in creating a monarch way station that received butterfly visitors every year. In early January of 2026, 42 monarch caterpillars were discovered at GWP’s Gila Native Plants Nursery on exterior milkweed plants growing in one of the shade houses. The caterpillars were positively identified as monarchs, and with the assistance of Butterfly Wonderland, the nursery staff and volunteers began the process of collecting and protecting the caterpillars. This poster looks at the methodology used to secure and raise the caterpillars and to release the butterflies back into the wild during a period of highly variable temperatures. The team expected the successful raising and release of up to 10 butterflies, and far surpassed the goal. In a changing political climate that rarely values the kinds of restoration activities many of our organizations have done over the last couple of decades, there are still opportunities for hope. This successful project is what restoration looks like when we recognize that all of our actions to protect the environment have value.