[Pollinator] A First Glimpse at the State of Western Monarchs

Mon Dec 14 08:35:22 PST 2015

Hi everyone,

The early data from this year’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count has been
received from the scores of volunteers who surveyed over 130 sites in
California. The verdict? It’s mixed. Sites in northern California have more
butterflies that last year, other sites fewer, and there are many sites in
the southern part of the state for which we don’t yet have data. A full
analysis will be available in January.

A blog by Sarina Jepsen, Endangered Species Program Director, is pasted in
below. You can also read our press release:
http://www.xerces.org/2015/12/13/western-monarch-count-data/

Matthew

**************************

*A First Glimpse at the State of Western Monarchs*

Sarina Jepsen, Endangered Species Program Director.

http://www.xerces.org/blog/a-first-glimpse-at-the-state-of-western-monarchs/

Throughout this last summer, people from across the western United States
were telling us about monarchs they had seen. Particularly notable were the
reports from places where monarchs are not usually seen, including Oregon’s
Willamette Valley and even here in Portland. Coming at a time when there is
a renewed interest in this remarkable long-distance traveler thanks the
White House releasing a national pollinator health strategy
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/19/announcing-new-steps-promote-pollinator-health>
and a petition
<http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/monarch-esa-petition.pdf>
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting legal protection, it
hasn’t been entirely clear whether there are actually more monarchs or just
more people noticing them.

When monarchs are spread across a region stretching from southern British
Columbia to Arizona, it is very difficult to assess how many butterflies
there are. Most reports are anecdotal, with no way to compare numbers from
one year to the next.

However, the migration of monarchs provides a remarkable opportunity to
gauge the health of the western monarch population. Because so many
monarchs from the western United States converge on tree groves along the
California coast, they can be counted while they are clustered together for
the winter -- and from the early reports from overwintering sites, it seems
like 2015 may have been a better year for this beleaguered butterfly in the
western United States.

The Xerces Society began counting monarchs in 1997, when we launched
the Western
Monarch Thanksgiving Count <http://www.westernmonarchcount.org/>. This
count happens during a three-week period centered on Thanksgiving. Biologists,
land managers, and citizen scientists visit overwintering sites year after
year to monitor the butterflies. After 19 years, this is the longest
running effort to monitor overwintering monarchs in California and the
count has built a considerable data set that allows a year-on-year
comparison of monarch numbers.

The 2015 count has just been completed and we are gathering the first
reports from the more than 85 volunteers who surveyed more than  130 sites.
So far, the surveys indicate that sites north of Santa Cruz are hosting
more butterflies than previous years, whereas sites in Monterey, San Luis
Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties are reporting fewer numbers of
butterflies on average. Several new sites have been reported, including
some from Marin County with up to 10,000 monarchs. The data is not yet
available for Santa Cruz County and many sites in southern California.

I’m very happy that numbers seem to be higher at some of the northern
California sites that have been surveyed, but monarch populations have not
yet recovered in the western U.S.

Insect populations naturally fluctuate from year to year. It took years of
monitoring to establish that the monarch population was suffering long-term
decline and population numbers need to show a sustained increase over
several years to demonstrate that the monarch is on its way to recovery.
Though numbers are up at some California overwintering sites, the average
number of monarchs per site is still far lower than numbers reported in the
late 1990s, and the overall population is significantly smaller
<http://www.xerces.org/monarchs/>: In 1997, over 1.2 million monarchs were
recorded; last year, fewer than 235,000.

Until such time as there is evidence that the monarch butterfly is secure,
we’ll continue our work on its behalf. The Xerces Society has the world’s
largest pollinator conservation team, with several staff currently working
on monarch conservation. Efforts include habitat restoration on farms
throughout the country, national development of milkweed production best
practices <http://www.xerces.org/milkweed/>, restoration of overwintering
sites in California, conservation and management of critical habitat across
central and western U.S., and engagement of citizens in monarch research
<http://www.xerces.org/milkweedsurvey/> and protection
<http://www.xerces.org/western-monarchs/>. Our staff participate in the
Federal Monarch Butterfly High Level Working Group, the USGS Monarch
Science Partnership, and co-chair the Monarch Joint Venture
<http://monarchjointventure.org/>. We collaborate with many federal and
state agencies or contract and work closely with university researchers and
other NGOs to advance the science and practice of monarch conservation.

With so much going on, let’s not forget the insect that inspires us all. If
you want to experience the phenomenon of the monarch migration, you can
find places to see them in California at
http://www.xerces.org/where-to-see-monarchs-in-california/.

________

*Matthew Shepherd*

Communications Director

*[image: Xerces-logo-CMYK-email]*

*Protecting the Life that Sustains Us*

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Tel: (503) 232-6639 ext. 110; Toll free: 1-855-232 6639 ext. 110; Cell:
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mdshepherd at xerces.org
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