Salud Carbajal visits Pismo Beach butterfly grove, says declining numbers ‘cry out crisis’
Central Coast Rep. Salud Carbajal visited the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove on Monday to cement his dedication to helping protect and conserve the quickly declining species.
Carbajal, a Democrat elected to represent California’s 24th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, was joined by his wife, Gina. Both were taken on a short tour of the grove and asked several questions of State Parks staff about the butterflies.
The congressman visited the grove to learn more about the tiny insect species — an important pollinator — and promised that he will advocate for more funding to help protect and conserve the butterflies.
“I, along with my colleagues — Rep. (Jimmy) Panetta, Sen. (Jeff) Merkley (of Oregon) — we’re trying to not only draw attention to (the species’ risk of extinction) by writing letters as we did to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to allocate funds, but moving legislation forward that will actually do what needs to be done: protect (the butterflies) and enhance the conservation itself,” he said during the visit.
“We’re trying to yell at the top of our lungs, ‘We’re in crisis,’” Carbajal continued. “This is a species in my district that is likely to go extinct unless we do something about it, and I feel it’s my responsibility to scream loudly.”
During his visit, several tourists roamed the grove searching for any remaining butterflies as the species’ overwintering season comes to a close.
But they didn’t find many.
In eucalyptus branches that are normally heavy with butterflies — even at this time of year — State Parks interpreter Danielle Bronson said there were 12 butterflies at the grove last week, and likely the same number remained during Carbajal’s visit.
Monarch butterflies experiencing ‘collapse of the species’
The species has seen its population plummet in recent years.
In the 1990s, when annual population counts began, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the nonprofit organization that organizes the counts, reported more than 115,000 butterflies in the grove.
By 2000, that number had declined to 26,100, according to the Xerces Society’s annual Thanksgiving count data. About 28,000 butterflies were counted at the grove in 2015.
In this year’s count, just 199 butterflies were counted.
“We might be witnessing the collapse of the species,” Emma Pelton, senior conservation biologist told The Tribune in December.
During Carbajal’s visit, State Parks staff remarked on how unprecedented it was that the Pismo Beach grove, which they said is the most important butterfly grove in California, saw such small numbers this year.
The western monarch butterfly population has declined by about 99.98% over the last two decades, according to the Xerces Society.
The reason? It chalks up to climate change, habitat destruction and lack of federal or state protection.
“Now it’s dwindled to this?” Carbajal asked during his visit. “If that doesn’t cry out crisis, I don’t know what does.”
State Parks recently released a new draft Public Works Plan and subsequent Environmental Impact Report about the Oceano Dunes State Vehicle Recreation Area and Pismo State Beach. In it, the agency details new ideas to develop the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove.
These plans include paving a new parking lot in the southern part of the grove’s property and planting more trees.
This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 4:36 PM.
