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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Hi everyone,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">It’s always exciting to be able to share the results from the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count. Late last year, we had the preliminary figures for you. Now we can announce the final tally. At almost 272,000 butterflies, it’s a little up from last year, but the average number of monarchs per site isn’t significantly different—and the total is 39% lower than the long-term average.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">You can read more in our press release at <a href="http://www.xerces.org/2016/02/04/assessment-of-western-monarch-butterfly-winter-population-completed/">http://www.xerces.org/2016/02/04/assessment-of-western-monarch-butterfly-winter-population-completed/</a>). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">You can also read our blog about the results and the awesome volunteers who do the hard work, <a href="http://www.xerces.org/blog/butterflies-and-volunteers-the-western-monarch-thanksgiving-count">http://www.xerces.org/blog/butterflies-and-volunteers-the-western-monarch-thanksgiving-count</a>. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Matthew</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">************************</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><b>Butterflies and Volunteers: The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">Candace Fallon, Endangered Species Conservation Biologist</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">The final results from the Xerces Society’s annual Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count have just been released, and the numbers are promising. Volunteers visited 187 sites this year and counted 271,924 monarchs, which is higher than last year. However, <span style="color:black">the average number of monarchs per site is not significantly different from last year, and this year’s population estimate is a 39% decline from the long term average</span>. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">Still, there are positive signs. Notably, the fifteen sites that have been continuously monitored every year since 1997 had the highest numbers of butterflies in a decade. And there were a number of sites, such as Berkeley Aquatic Park, that hosted overwintering monarchs for the first time, and several other sites that had not seen monarchs for years were occupied. In Marin County, in the northern extent of the overwintering range, two new sites each supported more than 8,000 butterflies!</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">Less positive is the story in southern California: the majority of the sites surveyed had fewer monarchs than last year.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">The Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count began in 1997 and is the longest running effort to monitor overwintering monarchs in California. The count spans 16 counties along the California coast and happens during<span style="color:black"> a three-week period centered on Thanksgiving. B</span>iologists, land managers, and citizen scientists visit overwintering sites year after year to monitor the butterflies. <span style="color:black">This year, amidst a flurry of emails, phone calls, workshops, scouting missions, and site visits, roughly 100 volunteers gathered the data that are so critical to the success of this program. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">We wanted to say thank you to all of our volunteers for making this project so successful. It would not be possible without you! </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%">We also wanted to express a special thank you to each of our amazing regional coordinators, who donate their time to not only visit overwintering sites and conduct counts and habitat assessments, but also field inquiries from local citizens and reporters, help guide new volunteers, give lectures and workshops on monarch conservation and monitoring, and provide general encouragement and support to our citizen scientists throughout the count period. These coordinators include Mia Monroe, who works not only at a regional level in Marin County but also coordinates the entire count with Xerces staff; Christina Garcia and Bill Shepard in Alameda; Barbara Rice in Mendocino; Allison Watson and the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History in Monterey; Liam O’Brien in San Francisco; Jessica Griffiths in San Luis Obispo; Charis van der Heide in Santa Barbara; Martha Nitzberg in Santa Cruz; and David Marriott in LA, Orange, San Diego, and Ventura Counties.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Knowing that so many people care so much about these butterflies gives hope for the future. Thank you!<span style="color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">________</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">Matthew Shepherd</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">Communications Director</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"><img border="0" width="128" height="48" id="yiv7410395064_x005f_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D15F39.FA2B4790" alt="Xerces-logo-CMYK-email_Outlook"></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">Protecting the Life that Sustains Us</span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">Stay in touch</span><span style="color:#1f497d">: </span><b><span style="color:#67cfe3"><a href="http://www.xerces.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#67cfe3">xerces.org</span></a></span></b><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span><b><u><span style="color:#21ae49"><a href="http://www.xerces.org/blog/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#21ae49">Xerces blog</span></a></span></u></b><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span><b><span style="color:#acc37e"><a href="http://www.xerces.org/enewsletters/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#acc37e">E-newsletter</span></a></span></b><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span><b><span style="color:#007298"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Xerces-Society/193182577358618" target="_blank"><span style="color:#007298">Facebook</span></a></span></b><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span><b><span style="color:black"><a href="https://twitter.com/xerces_society" target="_blank"><span style="color:black">Twitter</span></a></span></b><span style="color:black"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">628 NE Broadway, Ste 200, Portland, OR 97232-1324, USA</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d">Tel: (503) 232-6639 ext. 110; Toll free: 1-855-232 6639 ext. 110; Cell: (503) 807-1577</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#0070c0"><a href="mailto:matthew.shepherd@xerces.org"><span style="color:blue">matthew.shepherd@xerces.org</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div></body></html>