Kathy Keatley Garvey, a WSU alumna, rears monarch butterflies in her backyard in Vacaville, California. She was surprised when, on Sept. 5, a butterfly bearing a tag from her alma mater landed in her garden.

“It hung around for five hours … soaring and gliding and nectaring,” she said. “At times other monarchs would chase it.”

The insect was part of a study by David James, an associate professor of entomology at WSU Prosser, who has researched where monarch butterflies are likely to migrate to since 2012.

Keatley Garvey attended WSU as a communication student and wrote about James’ research in 2004, asking her readers to look out for the monarchs. Each day several butterflies stop at her “way station” (a 600 square-foot pollinator garden) to drink nectar on the plants there, such as the Mexican sunflower. She said she thinks they are stopping to gather fuel for their journeys to overwintering sites in Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove.

Some butterflies, before beginning their travels, are raised and tagged by citizen scientists in Eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia as part of James’ study. Inmates from the Washington State Penitentiary also assisted with rearing monarchs. James said the prison contacted him looking for a way to occupy the inmates. Since they are not able to go outside, the prison wanted an activity connected to nature and the outdoors.

This gave the inmates something meaningful to do with their time in prison, James said, and the program has quickly become the most popular with inmates signing up each year.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” James said.

Many of the tagged butterflies have left their birth places to migrate throughout the northwestern United States, with over 40 butterflies found, mostly in California. The record distance for a monarch was more than 800 miles, from Walla Walla to Santa Barbara, California.

Monarchs have also been recovered in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, and one was found in Brigham City, Utah.

Garvey said James’ research on their migration patterns is important for the survival of the butterflies. The monarch population has declined over 80 percent within the last 20 years, making them a threatened species.

“It’s important to know how far the monarchs travel and where they go,” she said. “We need to learn as much as we can about them in order to conserve them.”

One of the big questions James has been trying to answer is if the butterflies migrate to California or Mexico. The research shows the butterflies that are tagged in more eastern areas of the northwest are more likely to migrate to Mexico.

“They’ve been heading in a more southeasterly direction,” James said.

Another unique feature of this research is that it is not funded by anyone. The inmate participation and the citizen scientists help keep up the research and make it low-cost, but there is no grant funding this research. This is also why there is no set end date.

Most of the data James’ collects from the butterfly recoveries comes from the general public. They take pictures of butterflies they see and email James with the sighting locations.

One of the butterflies released in Corvallis, Oregon was found in San Francisco in September, and then flew to another site in Santa Cruz.

“We’re fairly confident it will stay at the overwintering site till January or February and then head back north,” James said, “and it could be seen again.”