Monarch butterfly population rebounds in SLO County. Here’s how many are in Pismo Beach
It’s that time of year again.
Western monarch butterflies have begun their annual winter migration into San Luis Obispo County and the rest of coastal California — and the numbers are off to a promising start.
More than 24,000 were counted at the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove along Highway 1 on Tuesday, according to California State Parks. That’s almost 2,000 more than were counted around this time last year, according to the state agency.
The Pismo Beach grove typically hosts the largest overwintering population in California — however, last year an overwintering site in Santa Barbara beat it out by nearly 5,000 butterflies, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which organizes annual counts of the species.
Monarchs have also returned to the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve in Cambria. In a post at cambriaca.com, Kitty Connolly of the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve said several dozen butterflies were observed in the viewing area there last week, noting that the “roosting monarchs look a bit like Doritos.”
Monarchs overwinter — or mostly stay in one location for the winter — to conserve energy during the colder months before they depart and disperse throughout the nation to breed.
Monarchs choose where to overwinter based on specific conditions that groves of trees provide. The Pismo Beach stand of eucalyptus and Monterey cypress trees has proven to be an ideal spot for the iconic black and orange insects.
The monarch butterflies are a key pollinator species that have been on the brink of extinction for several years. However, last winter and hopeful early numbers this year show a slight rebound, experts say.
“It’s great,” said Emma Pelton, a senior endangered species conservation biologist for the Xerces Society. “We seem to be on track for something that’s way better than the 2018 to 2020 crisis.”
Monarch butterfly population nowhere near historical numbers
Pelton was referring to a sharp decline in the overwintering western monarch population that occurred in 2018.
In 1997, researchers had counted more than 1.2 million overwintering monarch butterflies in California. By 1998, that number had dropped by half, and again fell by nearly another 50% in 1999, according to Xerces Society data which has detailed statistics on each year it holds the counts.
In the early 2010s, the overwintering monarch counts hovered at around 140,000 to nearly 300,000. But in 2018, the population plummeted to just about 28,000 monarchs.
The monarch butterfly overwintering population hit an all-time low in 2020, with fewer than 2,000 counted across all of California.
The very next year, however, the population saw a rebound — nearly 250,000 were counted in 2021.
Although researchers have only counted overwintering butterflies at very few sites this winter so far, Pelton estimated there are about 50,000 in the state already.
That number will likely continue to grow as more monarchs migrate into the groves and the Xerces Society’s annual organized statewide count begins on Nov. 12, Pelton added. Researchers and volunteers will count the butterflies at hundreds of sites around the state through Dec. 4, after which the Xerces Society will release its final tallies for the season.
Monarch butterflies still wait for federal protection
Because of the declining population numbers, in 2014, the Xerces Society and other environmental groups filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the monarch butterflies listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The government agency ruled in December 2020 that the species will have to wait for protection as other species take precedence.
In July, the accredited International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the monarch butterfly as endangered globally. The group noted in its assessment that climate change and habitat destruction were main threats to the species.
Although monarch butterflies have historically been ineligible for protection under the California Endangered Species Act, a state Supreme Court judge in September ruled that state bumblebees can be protected under the law as a type of fish, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times. Monarch butterflies were not included in that ruling specifically, but conservationists praised the ruling as a possible way to open that door in the future.
Monarch butterflies are otherwise designated as imperiled and vulnerable by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Therefore, they cannot be handled, removed from the wild or otherwise taken for scientific or propagation purposes, according to the agency.
How you can help save the monarch butterfly
There are several things people can do to help protect monarch butterflies, according to the Xerces Society.
The nonprofit organization suggests the following:
- Adopt an overwintering site and become an advocate for the site’s protection and management.
- Plant native California flowers that bloom in the early spring (February through April) to provide critical food for the monarchs.
- Plant native milkweed including woollypod, California, heartleaf, narrowleaf and showy milkweed plants.
- Seek out non-chemical options to prevent and manage pests in your garden and landscaping. Pesticides, herbicides and insecticides can all kill monarch butterflies.
- Report all monarch adult, caterpillar, egg, nectaring and milkweed sightings to the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper.
- Use the hashtag #SaveWesternMonarchs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to raise awareness.
For details, go to xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action.
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 11:37 AM.
