Welcome!
About Naturedigger
Learn, Participate, Conserve has been the foundation of Naturedigger since I started this journey over thirteen years ago. My mission has always been to educate the public about our natural world by offering free, factual and current monarch education and support through my website. I suggest opportunities to participate in community science (sometimes called citizen science) data collection, because I know hands-on involvement leads to more engaged nature enthusiasts, and ultimately, conservationists.
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If you are a teacher, student, homeschooler or nature center in need of monarch photos in all life cycle stages (or milkweed images), please go to the Use of Images page and send a request. If you don't see what you're looking for, please ask! I may have what you need in my archives.
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I hope my personal commitment to providing free nature education and support will create a new generation of enthusiastic naturalists and community scientists, who share one very important goal: to conserve our natural world and spread the word.
Founder
Naturedigger's founder, Tara Johnson, is an environmental scientist, Certified California Naturalist and avid birder. Throughout her 25-year career, she has been employed in both private and public sectors, where she conducted wetland delineations, monitoring and replications, as well as functions and values assessments and endangered species surveys, relocations and education.​
She promotes community science programs, because she has been involved in numerous projects herself and understands the importance of community involvement. She has participated in annual bird counts for over 20 years, tracked California condors at Pinnacles National Park, and volunteered for many years to educate and train community members to identify, monitor and collect data on aquatic invasive species. ​
Since 2014, Tara's primary focus has been on monarch butterfly and milkweed education, conservation and community involvement. For the past several years, she has been writing A Guide to the Anatomy and Life Cycle Stages of Monarch Butterflies. This resource will be used by community scientists to submit more accurate data to monarch conservation organizations. She currently counts monarchs with a team of biologists at the Lighthouse Field overwintering site in Santa Cruz.
Naturedigger has been a partner of the Monarch Joint Venture since 2016.
