Mods, can we get a pinned post?

It seems the experts are advocating to stop rearing monarchs. At this point it’s doing more harm than good. Let’s encourage all that time and money to go toward building home habitats or donate to local conservation efforts.

Can we get a pinned post to help spread education? It seems a lot of good intentioned folks don’t have all the most recent info. There’s serious concerns about both disease and the effects on genetic diversity, as well as impacts of mass releases.

“Raising monarchs in captivity is a good tool for education and research — but not conservation.” - Keep Monarchs Wild: Why Captive Rearing Isn’t The Way To Help Monarchs, Xerces Society, 2018, 2025

“Captive breeding is not an effective way to conserve monarchs. Raising a handful of caterpillars is okay, but large-scale breeding can bring more diseases to wild monarchs. Conservation efforts are more successful when focused on restoring habitat, reducing pesticide use, and supporting wild populations.” -Monarch Butterfly Conservation, Xerces Society,

“Individuals who care about monarchs and who wish to contribute to monarch conservation are encouraged to participate in citizen science monitoring and habitat restoration projects, and to support natural habitats with diverse ecological communities where monarch populations can be self-sustaining.”
-Signed,
Sonia Altizer
Monarch Health, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia
Lincoln Brower
Department of Biology, Sweet Briar College
Elizabeth Howard
Journey North
David James
Department of Entomology, Washington State University
Sarina Jepsen
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Eva Lewandowski
Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Minnesota
Gail Morris
Southwest Monarch Study
Kelly Nail
Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Minnesota
Karen Oberhauser
Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota
Robert Pyle
Northwest Lepidoptera Society
-includes citations to multiple studies
-Joint Statement Regarding Captive Breeding And Releasing Of Monarchs, Xerces Society