[Pollinator] Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count final numbers for 2015

[Matthew Shepherd]

Hi everyone,



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.



You can read more in our press release at
http://www.xerces.org/2016/02/04/assessment-of-western-monarch-butterfly-winter-population-completed/).




You can also read our blog about the results and the awesome volunteers who
do the hard work,
http://www.xerces.org/blog/butterflies-and-volunteers-the-western-monarch-thanksgiving-count.




Matthew



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



*Butterflies and Volunteers: The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count*

Candace Fallon, Endangered Species Conservation Biologist



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, 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.



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!



Less positive is the story in southern California: the majority of the
sites surveyed had fewer monarchs than last year.



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 a three-week period centered on Thanksgiving. Biologists,
land managers, and citizen scientists visit overwintering sites year after
year to monitor the butterflies. 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.



We wanted to say thank you to all of our volunteers for making this project
so successful. It would not be possible without you!



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.



Knowing that so many people care so much about these butterflies gives hope
for the future. Thank you!







________



*Matthew Shepherd*

Communications Director



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



*Protecting the Life that Sustains Us*



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matthew.shepherd at xerces.org
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