A monarch butterfly is shown on goldenrod. The International Monarch Monitoring Blitz runs from Friday to Aug. 7.

Photo by Donna Stanley

For the past five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and thousands of volunteers in Canada, Mexico and the United States have been collecting observations of monarch butterflies and milkweeds to help preserve the species.

People can contribute to this effort by sharing their sightings from Friday to Aug. 7. During this 10-day period, the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz invites people to look for milkweed plants and examine them for monarch eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies.

The data collected will help researchers answer key questions about monarch butterfly and milkweed distribution and timing of reproduction and resource use.

To report observations, visit journeynorth.org, and to follow the blitz on social media, use the hashtag #MonarchBlitz.