City of Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department

2024 Monarch Tagging

Volunteer to assist Environmental Educator, Joel Van Roekel, from Des Moines Parks and Recreation in a free monarch tagging event. 

Monarch tagging is a great way to get the public involved and excited about monarch butterflies and what conservation practices Des Moines Parks and Recreation is taking to help the monarch butterfly. Most people know what a monarch butterfly is, but they do not always know that the number of monarch butterflies in the wild has been dropping drastically since the mid-1990s.

Join the movement of volunteers across North America who tag monarchs as they migrate through on their way to Mexico. These tagging programs are a local part of a larger citizen science project that has been going on since 1992 to better understand the dynamics of the monarch’s spectacular fall migration. Last year more than a quarter million tags were used by volunteers!

All volunteers will need to pass a background check in order to help with this event.  

Please click "Sign Up to Volunteer" at the bottom of this page to finish your registration for the volunteer event.