ABSTRACT: In this presentation, I discuss how social scientific methods have been employed to shed light on the role of cities in monarch butterfly recovery efforts along the monarch's migration path in the American Midwest. Researchers from The Field Museum in Chicago and organizations in partner cities conducted interviews and surveys to understand the motivations, challenges, and strategies of those creating monarch habitat. Their findings were then integrated with geospatial and ecological data to create an urban monarch conservation model to help others set priorities and goals for future monarch recovery efforts, presented in the Urban Monarch Conservation Guidebook, published spring 2017. I discuss our results with a focus on the ways attitudes, concerns, needs, and interests vary across land use types in the urban context, and the ways in which monarch conservation actions can be integrated with community interests to develop strategies that benefit both people and pollinators. I conclude with a discussion of the engagement strategies we are currently exploring, as well as remaining questions and future directions for social scientists working on monarch conservation. key words: social science, urban, wildlife conservation
