Monarch Butterflies Oral History Project

About the Collection

The Monarch Butterflies in Oklahoma Collection is a series of interviews with people engaged with various aspects of the monarch butterfly and its habitat. The series spotlights collaborations, academic and citizen science, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, monarch research, and the tribes involved in restoration. The interviewees include OSU professors, several tribal members, a former school teacher, an owner of a native plant business, and many others.

In 2017, Dr. Tanya Finchum, professor with the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program, became curious about the monarch butterfly. She noticed signs in the rights-of-way along Highway 51 with an image of a monarch and the words “Research & Training Habitat.” After doing a little research and learning about the decreasing monarch population, she came across a group of Oklahoma tribes who were working together to improve monarch habitat and educate Oklahomans about their importance. The group – Tribal Environmental Action for Monarchs (TEAM) – has restored monarch habitat on over 300 acres of their land since their formation in 2015.

Every year, thousands of monarch butterflies pass through Oklahoma on their way to wintering grounds in Mexico. For the past two decades, the monarch population has been in steady decline, dropping more than 80 percent since 1997. The main reason for this decline is the lack of food and shelter available along their 3,000 mile journey. Since Oklahoma is in the middle of this migration path, ensuring there are ample food sources – mainly milkweed – for monarchs throughout the state is essential for their survival.

Monarch butterflies are an indicator species for other pollinators, such as bees. Because monarchs are well-known and their decline is easy to see, changes in monarch populations can be used to predict how other pollinator species inhabiting the same areas are doing. Pollinator success is vital across much of the Midwest because many of the crops grown on farmlands rely on pollinators for fertilization every year. If pollinator populations continue to decline, it could have a direct and dire impact human food ecosystems.

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Contact Us

Oklahoma Oral History Research Program
207 Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-7685
liboh@okstate.edu

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