It’s July 19, 2023. Standing at a trailhead within Skokie Lagoons, I was armed with close-focus binoculars and a clipboard, about to embark on a leisurely walk. It was a pleasant summer day at 79°F, the sun brightly shining with just a couple of clouds dotting the sky, and feeling only the occasional breeze. The conditions were perfect for butterfly monitoring.
While walking at a slow, constant pace, I scanned vegetation, looking from side to side and to the sky above for any butterflies within a 20-foot radius, and recording each one on a data sheet. Eventually, I came across a pale brown butterfly I didn't immediately recognize. I held up my binoculars for a closer look and realized I was staring at an Appalachian eyed brown (Lethe appalachia appalachia), a first for me. A first that wouldn't have happened without community science.
What is community science?
Community science programs are collaborative research projects in which members of the public collect and share scientific data, often in partnership with organizations or researchers. These programs invite anyone, regardless of scientific background, to contribute meaningful observations by following established protocols that ensure data quality. The information helps scientists track changes in wildlife, plants, climate, and ecosystems over time. No matter what your interests may be – birds, insects, plants, weather, or water – there is a plethora of community science projects in which to choose.
Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network
On that sunny day in 2023, I was conducting a survey for the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network, IBMN, which is a community science program run by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum of the Chicago Academy of Science, where I work. IBMN has been collecting quantitative data on Illinois butterfly populations for more than 30 years, growing from seven survey routes in 1987 to more than 150 routes in 2024.
The surveys are designed to be simple so anyone can learn to do it regardless of initial experience. New monitors are required to attend a virtual training workshop before they are assigned to a route, where they will conduct at least six surveys from Memorial Day weekend through August.
Why collect these data?
Besides the learning experience and opportunity to connect with nature, the breadth and depth of the IBMN dataset allow scientists to analyze long-term trends and better understand important phenomena happening today. By the end of 2024, IBMN volunteers conducted 21,340 surveys representing 2.8 years of cumulative search effort documenting 982,139 individual butterflies across 120 species. IBMN has conducted more than 1,000 surveys annually over the last five years. This year, we expect to surpass 1,000,000 individual butterfly observations. These data show that butterfly populations are declining in Illinois (Kucherov et al. 2021).
We are not alone in our butterfly monitoring efforts. The survey protocol we use is a type of Pollard Walk, which we adapted from the U.K. Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. About a dozen other regional butterfly monitoring programs in the U.S. have adapted their methods from IBMN. These data are stored in a centralized database, PollardBase, which now hosts 25 monitoring programs across the U.S. and Canada.
By combining datasets, researchers have been able to study large-scale phenomena, including:
- Analyzing how weather drives population dynamics of monarch butterflies (Zylstra et al. 2021),
- Evaluating how pesticides contribute to midwestern butterfly declines (Van Deynze et al. 2024)
- Exploring climate change impacts and how habitat restoration can reduce butterfly declines (Edwards et al. 2024)
- Reporting on the status of butterfly populations across the U.S. (Edwards et al. 2025).
These large-scale studies are crucial to informing insect conservation work and would not be possible without the combined efforts of hundreds of community scientists.
How to get involved
The Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network recruitment and training period is March to May. After attending a training session, new volunteers are matched with a route near where they live. We may work together to map a new route if there aren’t any within a reasonable distance. We need more monitoring in central Illinois! Learn more about IBMN and how to get involved.
If butterflies aren’t your jam, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum operates two other community science programs: the Illinois Odonate Survey and Calling Frog Survey.
And check out the Everyday Environment podcast episode about additional community science opportunities.
References
- Edwards, C. B., Schultz, C. B., Campbell, S. P., Fallon, C., Henry, E. H., King, K. C., ... & Crone, E. E. (2024). Phenological constancy and management interventions predict population trends in at‐risk butterflies in the United States. Journal of Applied Ecology, 61(10), 2455-2469.
- Edwards, C. B., Zipkin, E. F., Henry, E. H., Haddad, N. M., Forister, M. L., Burls, K. J., ... & Schultz, C. B. (2025). Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century. Science, 387(6738), 1090-1094.
- Kucherov, N. B., Minor, E. S., Johnson, P. P., Taron, D., & Matteson, K. C. (2021). Butterfly declines in protected areas of Illinois: Assessing the influence of two decades of climate and landscape change. PloS one, 16(10), e0257889.
- Van Deynze, B., Swinton, S. M., Hennessy, D. A., Haddad, N. M., & Ries, L. (2024). Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest. Plos one, 19(6), e0304319.
- Zylstra, E. R., Ries, L., Neupane, N., Saunders, S. P., Ramírez, M. I., Rendón-Salinas, E., ... & Zipkin, E. F. (2021). Changes in climate drive recent monarch butterfly dynamics. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5(10), 1441-1452.
Resources
This blog post was written by Allen Lawrance, Curator of Entomology at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Photo credit: Allen Lawrance
About Everyday Environment
Everyday Environment is a series of blogs, podcasts, webinars, and videos exploring the intricate web of connections that tie us to the natural world. Want to listen to us chat about this topic? Check out the podcast episode on this topic to hear more from the Everyday Environment team about wildlife resources.
Was there something about this blog's topic we didn’t cover? See something cool in nature? Let us know! Send us your question or share your everyday nature observation with us at go.illinois.edu/EEconnect, and we may share it in a future blog or podcast.
Listen to the Podcast Get the Everyday Environment Newsletter Connect with Us