Polk County Conservation

In 2021, Polk County Conservation (PCC) began partnering with the Iowa Butterfly Survey Network (IBSN) to monitor butterflies. Monitors are asked to complete a virtual training with IBSN and to monitor designated route(s) 6+ times between June 1 and August 8. IBSN and Polk County Conservation aim to utilize butterfly data to better understand the health and distribution of native butterfly species and the habitats they are living in. Volunteer Butterfly Monitor Responsibilities - Work with PCC volunteer coordinators to select a portion of hard or soft trail to monitor - Make an account with IBSN and complete their online training - Complete 6 runs of your designated route between June 1st and August 8th - Upload data to IBSN in a timely manner - Submit your butterfly route monitoring volunteer hours at the end of each month *Volunteer hours will need to be tracked for both IBSN's records/database and for PCC's records/database. For PCC's records and ease of reporting hours, if you cover another monitor's trail one or two times please simply report the monitoring time under your primary butterfly route's volunteer hours. *During a monitoring run, volunteers are going through and trying to identify which butterfly species they encounter along their route