AT23-085 Webinar State of the Monarch Butterfly Migration—Are they Endangered or Not?, San Antonio

Event Title: State of the Monarch Butterfly Migration—Are they Endangered or Not?

VMS-AT: AT: Hill Country Chapter Other Approved Training (Enter AT#, Class Title as posted, Location, and Presenter)

Comments: AT23-085 Webinar State of the Monarch Butterfly Migration—Are they Endangered or Not?, San Antonio, Presenter: Monika Maeckle (AT=1h)

Event Date: 4/06/2023
Event Time: 7:00p-8:00p

Note: This event has been changed to webinar only due to inclement weather. To join the webinar click click HERE
or use your Zoom app and this information: Zoom meeting ID: 857 2141 7756; Passcode: 291144
Meeting time remains the same.

Event Summary:
Monarch Butterfly Migration

Event Description:
State of the Monarch Butterfly Migration—Are they Endangered or Not?

About Monika Maeckle
Monika Maeckle is a pollinator advocate, caterpillar wrangler, Master Gardener, Monarch tagger, beekeeper, and curious student of nature who loves the whole life cycle.

This talk explores the conflicting narratives currently circulating regarding the status of the monarch butterfly migratory population. The monarchs’ recent listing by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as “endangered” seemed in direct conflict with reports from California of a massive rebound this year. What gives? We’ll dive into the milkweeds and find out.

With a long career in media and marketing, Maeckle is based in San Antonio, Texas. She is the founder and writer for the Texas Butterfly Ranch website and the founder and director of San Antonio’s Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival. With her husband Robert Rivard, she also cofounded San Antonio’s independent nonprofit news site, the Rivard Report (which became the San Antonio Report) and continues to serve as a contributor, covering urban nature. She is working on two books.

Maeckle enjoys butterflies, bees, and native plants in her Mariposario and urban garden as well as at her family’s Llano River ranch and keeps two bee hives near downtown. She, her family, and friends have tagged thousands of monarch butterflies, more than 50 of which have been recovered from the forest floor in the mountains of Mexico.

She worked closely with the National Wildlife Federation to convince the city of San Antonio to sign the NWF’s Mayor’s Monarch Pledge in 2015, resulting in San Antonio’s status as the nation’s first Monarch Butterfly Champion City. In 2016, with the help of many volunteers and community collaborators, she organized San Antonio’s Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival, which will celebrate its eighth year in October 2023. The Festival unfolds during peak monarch migration season in San Antonio and draws more than 10,000 visitors. Social impact media site Nationswell profiled the Festival in a 12-minute documentary and named it “Outstanding Solution of 2018.”

Maeckle also leads a local pollinator habitat initiative, 300for300, in an effort to create 300 pollinator habitats for San Antonio’s 300th birthday. After exceeding its 2018 goal, the initiative expanded beyond San Antonio, and is shooting for 500 pollinator habitats by 2020 and hit 1,000+ gardens in 2023.

Cost: no charge

Register @: Zoom meeting ID: 857 2141 7756; Passcode: 291144 or
Click here, https://gmail.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ceeccde80bf20191e8e25a3e7&id=927d6b750b&e=6ff9b693e9 to join

Instructor/Presenter:
Monika Maeckle

Contact Information:
saasforbirds@gmail.com

Organization Website:
https://www.saaudubon.org/

Sponsoring Organization:
San Antonio Audubon Society