PollardBase

Blue Ridge Butterfly Monitoring Program

The Blue Ridge Butterfly Monitoring Program is a new program focused on monitoring butterfly populations in and around protected lands along the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  This community science-based program partners with various non-profit and government organizations, uses a modified Pollard Walk protocol to monitor butterfly populations, encourages interaction between the general public and professional biologists, and provides data to researchers evaluating the health of insect populations and their habitat in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was officially launched in 2024.

Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program

The Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program (CarolinasBMP) tracks butterfly populations using modified Pollard Walk protocols, inventory trips, and opportunistic sightings across both North and South Carolina. This Citizen Science based program partners with various non-profit and government organizations, offers public outreach, encourages interaction between the general public and professional biologists, and provides data to researchers evaluating the health of NC habitats and insect populations. While officially launched in 2023, some Pollard Walk surveys that meet protocol criteria and date back to 2018 have been ingested.

Cascade-Siskiyou Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Cascade-Siskiyou Butterfly Monitoring Network is a long-term monitoring program that monitors butterfly populations in the Cascade-Siskiyou bioregion of southwest Oregon and Northern California. The program brings together researchers, land managers, and community scientists to collect data that will inform local conservation efforts and help program managers evaluate long-term population trends and map out regional butterfly distributions.  In 2019, we established 17 long-term permanent transects within the monument and on lands adjacent to the monument.  Neighbors to the monument are encouraged to participate through adopting a transect or developing one on their property.

Cascades Butterfly Project

The Cascades Butterfly Project is a long-term citizen science project that monitors butterfly populations in the Northern Cascade Mountains of Washington. Monitoring is conducted in North Cascades National Park Complex, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Mount Rainier National Park, and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.

Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network

Florida Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Florida Butterfly Monitoring Network seeks to promote and survey the health of butterfly populations throughout Florida. It brings together volunteers and scientists in a field-based conservation and education program targeting butterflies.

Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network engages community scientists in the process of collecting quantitative data on butterfly populations. Their goal is to provide data collected with a standardized protocol that allows land managers and researchers to evaluate long-term trends in a changing landscape. The Network also offers opportunities for fellowship, mentorship, and continuing education between community scientists and professional biologists.

Illinois Calling Frog Survey

Our goal is to establish calling frog survey routes throughout the Chicago region, resulting in amphibian abundance and distribution data. We particularly want to continue monitoring sites that have thus far been monitored regularly, so that we can obtain long-term data on amphibian trends within key sites. Data from the Calling Frog Survey will be used to guide regional conservation planning and local land management, to promote frog conservation and maintenance of regional frog biodiversity.

Illinois Odonate Survey

The Illinois Odonate Survey is a community science program of the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum that uses a standardized protocol to collect quantitative data for dragonfly and damselfly populations. Through our efforts we seek greater knowledge of the distribution and abundance of Illinois dragonflies and damselflies.

Iowa Butterfly Survey Network

The Iowa Butterfly Survey Network (IBSN), based at Reiman Gardens, aims to promote butterfly conservation and education in Iowa. As part of this mission, IBSN recruits and trains citizen scientists of all skill levels to participate in annual surveys of butterfly populations across the state.

IBSN's citizen science program provides volunteers with training on survey techniques specifically designed for butterfly monitoring, allowing them to collect valuable data on the presence and abundance of butterfly species in Iowa. By engaging volunteers in this effort, IBSN aims to raise awareness of the importance of butterfly conservation and inspire people to take an active role in protecting these important pollinators.

John Weber Legacy Butterfly Monitoring

In the early 1990s, John Weber retired and moved to northern Minnesota where he established many local butterfly survey routes, which he has conducted nearly every week of the northern Minnesota butterfly season since. His meticulous notes comprise scores of spiral bound notebooks and literally thousands of handwritten pages. He recently partnered with the Ries Lab of Butterfly Informatics at Georgetown University to digitize his data, which will be a major contribution to understanding northern butterfly population dynamics.

Michigan Butterfly Network

The Michigan Butterfly Network seeks to assess the changing population status of our state’s butterfly species, evaluate the quality of Michigan ecosystems, and engage the Michigan public in significant citizen science research.

Missouri Butterfly Monitoring Network

A program that is based at the world-famous Missouri Botanical Gardens.

MPG Ranch Butterfly Monitoring Program

Established in 2014 as part of our Pollinator Monitoring Program, the MPG Ranch Butterfly Monitoring Program tracks butterfly populations using modified Pollard Transects, timed surveys, inventory trips, and opportunistic sightings.  Changes in relative abundance of butterfly populations are analyzed in terms of habitat restoration efforts, land management practices, weather events, and climate.  Methods and results will be used to study how both survey design and butterfly detectability affect butterfly monitoring projects across the continent.   This program also offers opportunities for public outreach and encourages interaction between citizen scientists and professional biologists.

Nevada Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Nevada Butterfly Monitoring Network is a citizen science program designed to record butterfly diversity and abundance over time throughout the state. The program brings together enthusiastic amateur naturalists with professional scientists to help understand changes in butterfly populations over time.

New Mexico Butterfly Monitoring Network

Started by the New Mexico BioPark Society in 2020, The New Mexico Butterfly Monitoring Network aims to contribute to the scientific knowledge of New Mexico’s butterfly fauna. Through this initiative, the BioPark Society will continue to fulfill its commitment to wildlife conservation, education, and the community. The standardized long-term data collected by citizen science volunteers, will be utilized by researchers, land managers, and conservationists to evaluate trends in butterfly populations. Shedding light on the health and needs of butterfly populations in the state, will enable us to better protect and preserve this precious resource.

Occoquan Regional Monitoring Project

The Occoquan Regional Monitoring Project is focused on monitoring protected lands at several sites south of Washington DC. Both butterflies and dragonflies are surveyed as part of butterfly/dragonfly surveys that take place April through October. Butterflies are also surveyed as part of year-round general biodiversity surveys. Survey routes are located in the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Occoquan Regional Park, Meadowoods Management Area, and Metz Wetlands. The surveys are primarily focused on helping to direct restoration and conservation efforts. Although not a standard "Pollard" design, surveys have many of the key features of that monitoring protocol - survey routes are established and the same routes are walked each time at a consistent pace. In addition to surveys, North American Butterfly Association (NABA) Seasonal Counts are conducted at four sites.

Ohio Lepidopterists Butterfly Monitoring Network

Orange County Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Orange County Butterfly Monitoring Network in southern California engages citizen scientists and land managers in documenting changes in local butterfly populations and flowering plants serving as nectar sources over time. The Irvine Ranch Conservancy initiated the program in 2011 in Limestone Canyon Wilderness Preserve.

PRISSM (Partnership of Regional Institutions for Sage Scrub Monitoring)

rare Charitable Research Reserve

Since 2006 the rare Charitable Research Reserve has monitored butterflies on four transects across our 900+ acre property located in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. This program is one part of an ecological monitoring program that monitors a suite of terrestrial and freshwater indicator species to best assess the health and ecological integrity of the land owned and stewarded by rare.

Rice Creek Butterfly Monitoring Program

Butterfly surveys at Rice Creek Field Station were initiated in 1996 by Peter G. Weber, then a professor in the Department of Biology at SUNY Oswego. Pete was assisted by his son, Nicholas F. Weber, and by Michael Holy, science teacher at Hannibal High School and an alumnus of SUNY Oswego. Mike has continued this monitoring effort since Peter's retirement and move to Colorado in 2009.

Monitoring consists of counting each butterfly encountered within 5 meters on either side of up to 8 permanent transects along the trails and in the open fields and meadows at the Field Station. The total length of transects sampled exceeds 5,500 meters.

Tennessee Butterfly Monitoring Network

TNBMN is a citizen science program of Zoo Knoxville to monitor butterfly population trends on managed lands across Tennessee.  We strive to connect butterfly enthusiasts with public lands, help land owners manage their properties for the benefit of pollinators and inspire the public to enjoy and protect butterflies and other pollinators. 

Texas Butterfly Monitoring Network

The Texas Butterfly Monitoring Network is a citizen science program that monitors butterfly populations around the Lone Star State. This program seeks to better inform efforts for butterfly conservation and habitat preservation, and at the same time engages the public in taking an active role in butterfly conservation.

Wisconsin Butterfly Monitoring Network

Established by the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Milwaukee Harbor District in 2018, the Wisconsin Butterfly Monitoring Network is a cooperation among many additional partners that survey our state's butterfly diversity as a way to help assess ecological change over time and engage the public as citizen scientists.