How in the world do you tag a Butterfly? That is the first question most people have when they learn about the annual Monarch Butterfly Tagging event held at the Haskell-Baker Wetlands, south of Lawrence, Kansas.

Early on a Saturday morning, each autumn for the last sixteen years, MonarchWatch.org has hosted a free public educational event at the Haskell-Baker Wetlands. During that time, they have recovered over 13,000 tagged butterflies which is between a one half and one percent recovery rate, according to Dr. Chip Taylor, Professor of Entomology at the University of Kansas and the Director of Monarch Watch.org

The goal of the organization is to encourage the development of Monarch Waystations all over the world. Waystations can be created in an area as small as a backyard, and the main component is providing the Monarchs with their favorite food – Milkweed.

“There is ongoing major wildlife habitat loss in the U.S. and Mexico - 6,000 acres per day in new development (which) adds up to 2.2 million acres a year. In the 16 years I have been doing this, it is equivalent to the state of Illinois.” said Dr. Taylor.

“We have to do something about it – we have to recognize the impact on all species. Throughout the nineties we had pretty good Monarch populations in Mexico – this last decade I would say they average 60% of what we saw in the 90’s.”

The monarch butterflies of North America are the only butterflies in the world that make a round-trip migration each year and the Haskell-Baker wetlands are a major stop for these mysterious creatures along their trip to Mexico for the winter. The wetlands are home to many yellow Bidens flowers, a wildflower abundant on Missouri and Kansas roadsides, but especially abundant in wetland areas.

The Monarchs destination is 10 sites in a fairly confined area of the mountains of Mexico where the butterflies live for the winter in large colonies. Those 10 sites are also severely threatened with development and several organizations are working towards preservation.

Most of the Monarchs will die on their return trip from Mexico, but they will lay as many as 1,000 eggs on their way back. The offspring will continue heading north as far as New Brunswick looking for milkweed. Their great-grandchildren will make the southern trip to Mexico the following year.

“There are two things that we still don’t know about Monarchs.” Dr. Taylor said. “We don’t know how the whole phenomenon is induced, how the new butterflies become migratory. They have an environmental perception that induces preparation for migration and those dates turn out to be quite predictable, it looks like there may be a celestial component.”

The second thing still unknown about Monarch butterflies is how they navigate from so many varied locations to one small area in Mexico. “They are one of the few organisms that can pick up longitude, humans cannot pick up longitude. We don’t know how they set those headers or vectors, we have butterflies originating from New Brunswick and Minnesota and Atlanta all setting a course for a particular destination.”

Monarch Watch relies on “citizen scientists” to assist them in ongoing research and conservation of the species. On Friday evening before the tagging event, Dr. Taylor visited the wetlands and was dismayed to see only 30-50 Monarchs.

“On Saturday morning we had a huge crowd of over 500 people, and the first hour nothing happened. At 9:30 the fog lifted and the butterflies started appearing. They have a knack for discovering where the nectar is and just drop out of the sky. We tagged somewhere between 500 and 1,000 this year.” said Taylor.

The Monarch migration should last through the first week of October. More information and directions to the Haskell-Baker wetlands can be found at www.monarchwatch.org

Instructions for creating your own butterfly waystation can be found at http://monarchwatch.org/waystations/