Helping Local Youth and Monarch Butterfly Populations

Join Mission Monarch as we seek to restore local Monarch and Milkweed populations in Southern California while employing local youth!  Mission Monarch, a project launched by SAMOFund in 2021, provides a meaningful wage to 2 local youth while empowering them and their communities to help Southern California monarch populations.  The youth-led goals we have reached in 2021 and are reaching for in 2022 include:

• Organize the collection and cleaning of over 1 million Narrowleaf Milkweed seed (Asclepias fascicularis) annually

• Help idenitfy and document new and known milkweed populations in the Santa Monica Mountains of all 3 local  milkweed species (A. eriocapra, A.   fascicularis, A. californica)

• Help grow and distribute live milkweed plants and clean seed to over 1,000 Southern California households annually, provided to the public free of charge

• Engage with the public at local festivals, conferences, etc to promote local milkweed and best practices for welcoming monarchs into local gardens

• Work with local schools and youth groups to provide age-appropriate lessons covering local monarch and milkweed populations

•  Organize, promote and produce the annual Southern California Monarch & Milkweed Conference, provided to the public free of charge

Our Impact

• Collecting over 2 million Narrowleaf Milkweed seed

• Creating 1500 connections sharing the importance of Milkweed and Monarchs

• Connect with over 200 local middle school students utilizing next generation science standards to develop and lead science lesson

• Travel to over a dozen farmers markets in Los Angeles and Ventura counties

• Highlight the importance of human interaction with milkweed by utilizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge to support butterfly habitat

• Participate in local Monarch and Milkweed working groups to collaborate with outside organizations and share findings

• Serve as liaisons for Girl Scouts of Central Valley programming and habitat development

• Create short form video content to reach young audiences and inspire conservation

Mission Monarch is a project led by SAMOFund, a non-profit organization that works to protect and encourage appreciation and understanding of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.  Visit our non-profit website, samofund.org, for more information about our non-profit and the work we do in and around the Santa Monica Mountains!