[Pollinator] Monarch Butterflies in Western North America in Jeopardy

Thu Jan 17 08:15:14 PST 2019

Hi everyone,

I have some bad news: The population of monarch butterflies overwintering
in California has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded.

Surveys done by volunteers with the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count
<https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/> found only 28,429 butterflies, an
86% fall from the previous year—and a 99.4% decline from the number of
monarchs in the state in the 1980s. To put this in perspective, for every
160 monarchs in the 80s, there is only one now, the rough equivalent of the
city of Los Angeles shrinking to the town of Monterey.

Faced with these alarming numbers, the Xerces Society has worked with
monarch scientists at institutions across the western states to
develop the Western
Monarch Call to Action <http://www.xerces.org/save-western-monarchs>, a
5-point rapid-response action plan to rescue the western population of the
monarch butterfly.

We have also released today a fact sheet on what individuals can do to help
<https://xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/19-002_Western-monarchs-are-in-trouble_this-is-how-you-can-help_XercesSociety.pdf>
as well as the final count data <https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/data/>
for the Thanksgiving 2018 count. All of this can be found at
*savewesternmonarchs.org
<http://savewesternmonarchs.org/>*

The Xerces Society is taking action for monarchs across the United States,
with a special focus on restoring breeding and overwintering habitat for
the western population in California.

-- We are pushing for protection for overwintering sites and working with
partners to restore habitat at multiple overwintering sites.

-- Working with farmers, natural area managers, California cities, and
others, we are planting and restoring habitat across the Central Valley—a
key breeding and migration area for monarchs. In the last 18 months, we
have restored 20 miles of hedgerows on farms, and in the coming year, we
will be adding another 10 miles to further re-connect habitats. These
hedgerows provide essential nectar sources, milkweed for breeding, and an
unsprayed refuge in a largely inhospitable landscape.

 -- Recognizing the challenges of creating habitat for monarchs, Xerces
staff are working with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
Plant Materials Center in California to conduct planting trials of milkweed
and monarch nectar plants to develop best practices for establishing these
plants in the state.

*If you live in California or another western state, we urge you to join us
in recovering the western monarch population.*

(It should be noted that the eastern population is doing better than the
western monarchs. Overall, eastern monarch have suffered a significant
long-term decline (ca. 85%) in a couple of decades, but it hasn’t
experienced the abrupt and dizzying fall that afflicted the western
population. That said, if you are in the eastern regions, please do
everything you can to help monarchs have adequate, safe habitat!)

The most immediate priority in the coming weeks is to ensure monarchs have
nectar to fuel their flight and milkweeds on which they can lay their eggs
when they leave the overwintering sites. This is something that everyone in
California can help with right now: plant early blooming native flowers
<https://xerces.org/monarch-nectar-plants/> and milkweed
<https://xerces.org/milkweed-seed-finder/> to restore breeding and
migratory habitat. Monarchs will use plants growing in gardens, parks,
along railroads, on farms and anywhere else they can find them.

Of equal importance to ensuring monarchs have flowers is protecting their
overwintering sites. Each year, the groves they shelter in are destroyed or
damaged by development or inappropriate tree trimming. This needs to be
halted and the groves given adequate protection and management, so that
monarchs have a place to return to next fall.

There are important questions that remain unanswered about monarchs, such
as a detailed understanding of where they go right after they leave the
overwintering sites. People can watch out for monarchs and report what they
see to the online Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper
<http://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/> project to help inform conservation
strategies.

If you want to read more about the crisis facing monarchs in the western
states, please see:

Blog article: Record Low Number of Overwintering Monarch Butterflies in
California—They Need Your Help!
<https://xerces.org/2019/01/17/record-low-overwintering-monarchs-in-california/>

https://xerces.org/2019/01/17/record-low-overwintering-monarchs-in-california/

Press release: Monarch Butterflies in Western North America in Jeopardy
<https://xerces.org/2019/01/17/monarch-butterflies-in-western-north-america-in-jeopardy/>

https://xerces.org/2019/01/17/monarch-butterflies-in-western-north-america-in-jeopardy/

Thank you for reading this far. Please do all you can to help monarchs. The
effort we put into protecting and creating safe places for them will reap a
bounty for so many other butterflies, bees, and other insects!

Matthew

----------

Matthew Shepherd

Director of Communications & Outreach

[image: Email-Outlook_Xerces-logo-CMYK]

Protecting the Life That Sustains Us

Connect with us @xercessociety on Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/xercessociety/>, Twitter
<https://twitter.com/xercessociety>, and Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/xercessociety/?hl=en>.

Visit www.xerces.org to read our blog <http://www.xerces.org/blog/>, sign
up for our e-newsletter
<https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001HTk7N6nZumLPinBr8VACbNdTXCe732bGu6KpqC13JAKPti_HBe5xyr7t0p4mDfKe2dOsd-TB1qvv772s6GQfVa_SbKKfwBiwl4blH4KvCjq4dpmA2M9UNZ2axlQwu_1Gvjrl2Rb53WUZwsddwCzyorgxedLAaMy3>,
and find out how you can protect invertebrates.

Support our work: Donate <https://xerces.org/donate/>!

628 NE Broadway, Suite 200,   Portland, OR 97232,   USA

Office: (503) 232-6639 x110

Cell: (503) 807-1577

matthew.shepherd at xerces.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20190117/04136fe9/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4369 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20190117/04136fe9/attachment.jpg>