Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program
Welcome to the Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program!!
News and upcoming workshops are featured on our NEWS and EVENTS page
Brief Description
The Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program (CarBMP) aims to track butterfly populations using scientifically sound, standardized survey methods as well as opportunistic sightings across both North and South Carolina.
This Community Science based program partners with non-profit and government organizations, offers public outreach, encourages interaction between the general public and professional biologists, and provides data to researchers evaluating the health of habitats and insect populations in the Carolinas.
Our Mission
The Mission of the Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program is to:
- Develop and train a team of professional and community scientists to conduct regular surveys on permanent routes across both North and South Carolina
- Develop a long-term picture of butterfly population trends while connecting people to the outdoors
- Partner with conservation and educational organizations to increase awareness and enable synergistic efforts for protecting insect populations and natural habitats
- Foster public interest in and awareness of pollinators and natural habitats and the importance of monitoring insect populations by providing education outreach tools such as workshops and identification guides
- Provide data to researchers evaluating the health of habitats and insect populations and to assist with creating potential solutions to reversing or slowing negative trends
A Little Background
The potential dire consequences of declining insect populations across the globe have become a focal issue in both scientific circles and the general public.
This recent increased attention has not only highlighted the consequences of losing the ecosystem services insects provide, such as pollination, but has also revealed a dearth of rigorous, long term population studies.
Despite rising concern among scientists, the scientific evidence for global and even regional declines is still weak; many of the key studies are based on results with very limited spatial and temporal replication, so it is difficult to support conclusions.
In order to better document how widespread these declines may be, we critically need more scientifically produced data on insect populations.
Establishing biodiversity monitoring programs like the CarBMP is a key to understanding the future of natural resources, and this is especially true in the Carolinas where rapid population growth and urban expansion are accelerating at a very high rate.
We welcome you to join the CarBMP, enjoy some time outside, and become a part of our growing community science program.
Our Continental Contribution
The Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program is one of 20+ independent butterfly monitoring programs across North Anmerican north of Mexico that comprise The North American Butterfly Monitoring Network.
As a collaboaritve consortium of independent programs, The North American Butterfly Monitoring Network goals are to expand the scale of butterfly population data collection, allow for greater community participation, and improve data sharing and use.
With these data, we can track not just species' distributions, but timing, yearly changes, unusual events, and dynamics at local, regional, and continental scales.
One recent product is the paper in the journal Science, published 6 March 2025, titled Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century.
Learn More and Get Involved!
If you want to start a survey route, contact Jeff Pippen at jeffpippen9 AT gmail.com.
To learn more about how the project works, click here to see the Protocols page.
Created on ... March 8, 2023 | jeffpippen9@gmail.com
