After analyzing the fate of almost 1.4 million tagged monarch butterflies, Monarch Watch Director Chip Taylor and colleagues are throwing a widespread theory about monarch decline out the window. They conclude that the decline in monarchs isn’t because of food shortages during migration. Instead, it’s the size of the summer population. More milkweed is needed in the north to build and sustain the monarch population. Here at home, there seem to be more monarchs than last year, but there are never enough.