The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (hereafter, DNR) is initiating a project to detect changes in butterfly communities in the western Minnesota prairie region, in relation to a wide variety of agents of change. Mid-summer butterfly communities will be surveyed using line transect distance sampling from June 15-July 20, 2025. Our objectives are: Assess what types and frequencies of management (fire and grazing) are most effective at conserving the prairie butterfly community. Assess effects of landscape context on the prairie butterfly community. Detect long-term changes to the prairie butterfly community along a latitudinal gradient. Project Scope; This project will require monitoring butterflies at 6 sites across western Minnesota prairies. Each site consists of a total of 800 m of transects, along which butterflies will be surveyed. The DNR estimates that each site on a given survey day should take around 1-1.5 hours to complete, depending on the abundance of butterflies. This estimate does not include the time it takes to drive and/or walk to each site/transect. One round of surveys should be completed for all sites during each of the five weeks from June 15-July 20, 2025. There is some room for flexibility in this schedule that can be negotiated before finalizing the contract. Surveyors will be responsible for arranging and supplying their own transportation and lodging and can include those expenses in their cost proposal. The DNR has estimated the cost should not exceed $18,000 (including travel). Price will be a significant factor in the evaluation of proposals. The contract will be compensated based on the number of transects completed.
