Saving the Western Monarch Migration
Strategic Communication Capstone Project
The western monarch population has declined by about 99% in the past 5 years due to loss of habitat, food sources, and pesticides.
This project was the start of an ongoing collaboration between the Bren School and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to promote the western monarch population and migration. I worked with four other master’s students to craft a communication campaign aimed towards nurseries and their customers in California’s central coast region.
For the campaign we conducted audience research and created educational materials to distribute to nurseries. The audience research included a survey of nurseries that determined their current knowledge of monarch decline, inventory of monarch-friendly or harmful plants, and whether they need help communicating the monarch decline to customers. All of the survey respondents answered “yes” or “maybe” to the question of whether they would like our help communicating the monarch decline to their customers.
From the survey results, we crafted a communication campaign that included a detailed plan for the client to use to motivate the public to take action to prevent the extinction of the western monarch. I also made the following educational materials to distribute to nurseries:
- Sticker for nurseries to use to advertise plants they sell that are on our list of approved monarch friendly plants
- Small laminated poster for nurseries to display near native milkweed and native nectar plants
