Transportation Radio · 2026-03-06 · 22 min
In this episode, Darlene Goehl - research engineer and research group lead at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute - explains how new infrastructure being developed in Texas can help prevent thousands of monarch butterfly deaths as they migrate across busy roads in North America. Episode Notes In this podcast episode, Darlene Goehl joins ‘The Stream by AASHTO’ to discuss the joint work of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) with the Texas Department of Transportation in building monarch flight diverters or MFDs - a series of tall, mesh barriers placed along busy roads that motivate the butterflies to fly above the roadway, well above vehicles traveling on the highway below. Researchers have noted sharp declines in monarch populations, specifically during their migration periods in the fall. In some years, researchers found that nearly 3 percent of the monarch’s fall migratory population were lost after being struck by vehicles traveling on roads; this number represents about half of the population decline in a given year. Goehl discusses the importance of monarch butterflies to the ecology and cultural symbology of the southern U.S.
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