Keynote Speaker Karen S. Oberhauser

Professor Emerita, UW-Madison Department of Entomology

For almost 40 years, Karen Oberhauser and her students have conducted research on several aspects of monarch butterfly ecology; this research depends on traditional lab and field techniques, as well as the contributions of a variety of audiences through participatory science. In 1996, she started the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP), which continues to engage hundreds of volunteers throughout North America. As Director of the UW-Madison Arboretum from 2017-2023, Karen fostered a strong Participatory Science program that incorporated the MLMP and many other projects to engage the public in meaningful ecological data collection. She has also worked with K-12 teachers since her oldest daughter started kindergarten in 1992, using monarchs and the connections people feel for this amazing insect to promote greater understanding of science and conservation. Karen has authored over 100 papers on her research on monarchs, insect conservation, and participatory science. She has an undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University, a degree in science education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a PhD in Ecology and Behavioral Biology from the University of Minnesota.

Karen is passionate about the conservation of the world’s biodiversity and building connections between humans and the natural world. She is a founding officer of the Monarch Butterfly Fund and has served on several state and national organizations focused on pollinator conservation and participatory science.

About Karen’s Presentation

Monarch Butterfly Biology and Conservation in a Changing World

Monarch butterfly populations have been declining over the last 25 years—essentially the entire time that we’ve been monitoring them. It is important to move beyond documenting this decline, and focus on the challenge posed by monarch conservation and insect conservation in general. Karen will describe the amazing biology of migratory monarchs, how we can use data collected by scientists and public to understand what is driving monarch numbers, and what we can do with that information. The take-home message will be how we can address species conservation—in our own gardens and beyond—in the face of climate and other human-driven changes.

Karen describes her research field, conservation biology, as the science of hope. The challenges we face as we work to preserve biodiversity are steep, but our collective concern for monarchs and, by extension, the thousands of species with which they share habitats can provide a glimmer of hope in a complicated and rapidly-changing world.