Reducing Wildfire Risk While Maintaining Critical Monarch Habitat Along the California Coast

The California Coast has hundreds of tree groves where dual management practices aim to reduce the risk of fire and to conserve habitat for overwintering monarch butterflies. As the climate changes, longer high-intensity droughts can increase mortality and/or limb loss in grove trees which causes an accumulation of fire-prone fuels. Moreover, these trees provide the critical habitat for overwintering monarch butterflies. Every year only certain trees in certain groves accumulate clusters of thousands of monarch butterflies. Should trees die or important roosting branches collapse, monarchs may not return in the future.  

The overall goal of this project is to understand how the dual management goals of fire management and monarch conservation interact in tree groves along the California Coast. Through a partnership with CA State Parks, the specific goals of this multi-year study are 1) to identify the risks posed by drought and fire to monarch habitat, (2) to better understand the drivers of monarch clustering locations across California and within specific tree groves, and (3) to determine how fuel management and prescribed burns influence monarch clustering and movement.  

Project outcomes include fire risk assessments for coastal tree groves, and information about how fire management practices, climatic factors, and tree grove characteristics impact the conservation of critical monarch butterfly habitat.